Contemplating the Crawdads

On Saturday evening, the Hickory Crawdads hosted a rather intimidating Kannapolis Intimidators team at L.P. Frans Stadium. The Intimidators were at the top of the SAL Northern Division with a 10-6 record coming into tonight's game. I thought this would be a good game, and it turned out to be a very good game in the end.

The Crawdads struck first in the bottom of the first inning on a single to right field by Matt West which scored Jared Bolden. The Intimidators quickly answered in the top of the second on a Jon Gilmore single to right field. The Crawdads broke open the game in the 4th inning, scoring three runs. The scoring that inning was ignited by a Bianucci triple.

With a 4-2 lead after the fourth frame, the 'Dads started to get a little frazzled on the mound in the top of the sixth. Cliff Springston was pulled from the game after 1 out in the inning after allowing two base runners on a walk and a Matt West fielding error. Fabio Castillo entered the game in relief only to allow two consecutive walks (causing a man to score). Castillo was able to collect himself , striking out Matt Inouye to escape more damage.

Neither team would score another run and the 'Dads move to 9-8 and 1.5 games out of the lead in the SAL Northern Division.

Pitching in Hickory remains solid overall. Hickory leads the SAL with a combined ERA of 1.94 after 17 games completed. If the bats ever come alive in Hickory, this team will dominate the conference. Our combined batting average is .245, which places the Crawdads at the sixth spot in the league. Mike Bianucci leads the SAL in the OPS with a 1.092 and he holds the 10th spot in batting average with a .364. Bianucci is also tied for second place in RBI's with 15 on the season.

The 'Dads will host game two of this series at 3:00pm on Sunday...

Until next time....

John M. Setzler, Jr.