CRAWDADS TAKE SERIES OVER AUGUSTA
Lead 7.5 games in the Carolina League division
Noah Franklin scored his first home run on Friday to give the Hickory Crawdads a 4-3 win over Augusta.
The Crawdads celebrate a walk-off win against Augusta last week.
The Hickory Crawdads beat Augusta 7-2 on Sunday to take the series 4-2 and pick up their third straight win.
Kaden Carpenter hit his second home run of the year in the second inning to give Hickory a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, a Pablo Guerrero single drove in Yolfran Castillo to extend the lead.
Augusta got both runs back in the top of the fifth, but a five-run eighth inning put the game out of reach for the GreenJackets. It was the second-straight rout for the Crawdads, who came off a wire-to-wire 10-1 rout of the GreenJackets less than 24 hours earlier.
Hickory 10, Augusta 1, Saturday:
Hickory sent eight men to the plate and scored two runs in each of the first two innings on Saturday. In the first, Marco Argudin walked and Paulino Santana blooped a double to shallow right. One out later, Pablo Guerrero singled in Argudin and Kaden Carpenter's sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
A similar script played out in the second, when Argudin was hit by a pitch, and Paulino Santana singled. Yolfran Castillo flared a single to right to score Argudin and place runners at the corners. That set up a double steal which brought Santana home.
Castillo hit his fourth home run of the season in the fourth inning and Devard Tovar added his 14th homer of the year in the fifth to make it 6-0.
The chef's kiss of the game occurred after an error allowed Castillo to reach and load the bases with two outs in the fifth. Guerrero hit a grounder up the middle that deflected off the glove of second baseman Junior Tilien and dribbled into center. With the runners off on contact, all three runners scored on the single. As Guerrero made his way to second, pitcher Cristobal Abreu cut off the throw from the outfield and fired the ball all the way to the centerfield track. The wild throw allowed Guerrero to complete the Little League home run and complete the Crawdads' scoring.
Moises Morales (8-2) got the win for Hickory, tossing five strong innings, allowing one run on four hits and striking out four.
Frankie Martinez retired all six batters he faced to close out the game.
Luis Arestigueta pitched only in the first inning and took the loss (2-3) for the GreenJackets.
With the series win, Hickory increased their lead in the second-half South Division of the Carolina League to 7.5 games over Augusta, Charleston and Kannapolis with 24 games left to play.
Hickory 4, Augusta 3, Friday:
Noah Franklin picked a big spot for his first home run with the Hickory Crawdads, as his two-run blast in the sixth inning provided the difference in a 4-3 win on Friday.
Augusta outhit the Crawdads 12-4 and had 16 base runners in the game. However, the
GreenJackets stranded 11 runners and hit into two double plays. They finished Friday's contest hitting 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Hickory scored single runs in the first and fourth innings, both coming by similar circumstances. Yolfran Castillo and Paulino Santana opened the Crawdads' first with singles to place runners in scoring position. Santana stole second, and when the throw by catcher Jacob Jarrell skipped away, Castillo scored on the error.
With two outs in the fourth, Kaden Carpenter beat the shift with a sliced single to left. Carpenter stole second and advanced to third on Jarrell's second throwing error. Kolby Blake beat out an infield hit to third to score Carpenter.
Mason McConnaughey tossed four scoreless innings for the Crawdads, though it was not without scoring chances for Augusta. The GreenJackets put two on in the second and third innings but came up empty both times. In the third inning, Matt Scannell lined hard to Daniel Flames at second, which turned into an inning-ending double play.
Augusta finally broke through against reliever Jormy Nivar to tie the game in the fifth. The GreenJackets loaded the bases with one out and scored on Juan Mateo's seeing-eye single to right. Nivar was able to strand runners at second and third by striking out Scannell and Cooper McMurray.
The GreenJackets attacked again in the sixth, loading the bases with one out. They took the lead when Junior Tulien's fly ball to right was misjudged and fell in for a single. However, Nivar escaped further damage by getting Luis Sanchez to foul out and striking out Mateo.
Like Augusta, the Crawdads struck gold against a new reliever, Kade Woods, who replaced starter Landon Beidelschies. Woods walked Marco Argudin to start the sixth inning. One out later, Franklin tattooed a hanging curveball and sent it over the billboards in left-center field for his first homer with a full-season team.
Michael Trausch replaced Nivar in the seventh and allowed a walk over 1.1 innings.
Augusta made one last charge in the ninth, when it put the first two on bases. However, J.D McReynolds struck out three straight hitters to close out the win and earn his fifth save of the season.
Novar got the win and improved to 6-0. Woods was tagged for the loss and dropped to 2-3.
