Contemplating the Crawdads

... and sometimes you're the bug. And on Tuesday night, Hickory was the bug.

Took my annual visit to Kannapolis' Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium (named after the textile plant that no longer exists). A nice enough small town park with NO overhang for sun, rain, gloom of night. But on Tuesday night, no such thing was needed as it was as beautiful a night as you could ask. Unfortunately for Crawdads' fans, the evening would not fare well for the Hickory squad on the mound as the 'Dads lost 4-2.

The omen of what was to come started in the first inning. In the Hickory half of the first, David Paisano hits a hard ground ball up the middle; Drew Garcia ranges far to his right to make a diving stab and throw out Paisano. Edward Martinez reaches on a flare to left. After Jared Bolden strikes out, Mike Bianucci hits a laser to right, but at Intimidator rightfielder Sergio Morales. Two missles-- side retired.

For Kannapolis, Eduardo Escobar reaches on a 45-foot nubber up the third base line. Escobar then takes off for an attempted steal of second. With 2B Ogata covering, Garcia hits a bloop that barely makes the outfield lip of the grass, just past the reach of the retreating Ogata behind second base. After a strikeout, pitcher Jake Brigham hits Garcia with a pickoff throw that dribbles 10 feet away from 1B Clark Murphy; however, the ball was far enough away to allow Escobar to score.

Intimidator starting pitcher, lefthander Charlie Leesman, did a masterful of curtailing the Crawdads running attack all night. His quite deceptive move to first kept the Hickory runners close to the bag at the risk of being picked off. This led to a double play in the second, in which Matt West did not get a good jump from first to second, a pickoff of Martinez in the third, and another double play in the fourth.

Meanwhile, the Kannapolis offensive strategy of putting the ball in play and see what happens worked well. The Intimidators finished with 10 hits, none of them line drives. In fact, the most important piece of real estate at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium was the area in front of home plate. The dirt there must be made of brick, superball material, or something to cause the high hops that occured.

In the third inning, .116 hitter Jordan Cheatham opened the inning with a seeing eye single. He would steal second, moved to third on a sac bunt, then scored on a high chopper to Brigham that he had no choice but to wait for gravity to take its course, then retire the batter at first.

The other two runs for Kannapolis came courtesy of two more high hops, and a poor pitching sequence. With one out, Jorge Castillo hit a high one hop chopper to second that Jason Ogata played on an in between hop for an error. Brigham still had a chance to get out of the inning unscathed after a fly ball out. I's catcher John Curtis found the magic dirt spot again, as he hit a one hopper that bounced over 1B Clark Murphy's head to place runners at 1st and 3rd. Kenny Williams (yes, the White Sox GM's namesake and kid) hit a seeing eye single to score a run.

Now down 3-0, Brigham threw a four-pitch walk to the above mentioned .116 hitter. Escobar then hits a flare to left for an RBI single and a 4-0 deficit for the good guys.

In the 5th, Ogata hits one-out a triple past the diving CF, but is stranded. After scoring a run in the 6th and 7th to draw within 4-2, Hickory gets the trying runs aboard. However, the dreaded pickoff move by Leesman cuts down Paisano at first.

After throwing 102 pitches, Leesman is replaced by sidewider Drew O'Neal. O'Neal enters to walk the first batter, Jared Bolden, on four straight balls, none close. The next batter, Mike Bianucci, swings at the first strike of the inning, only to hit into a 6-3 double play. For all intents and purposes, that was the ball game, as the Crawdads went meekly afterwards.

For the second straight game, the worst hitting team in the Sally League entering the game (Kannapolis hitting .218) collected double digit hits off the best the Sally League has to offer (ERA 1.96). However, the ten hits were as follows. infield hit, bloop to second base area, ground ball, high bouncer past Murphy, bloop to left, bloop to left, bloop just past third, ground ball single to right, ground ball to right.... a very frustrating night.

Edward Martinez shortened his swing as he was content to serve a base hit in front of the shallow OFs. He left 3-4 with a single to left, center, and right

And last, but certainly not least: Martin Perez looked as good as he has in April. Martin used his fastball well, hitting corners and spotting it well, which made his off speed pitches much more effective. Was as aggressive in attacking hitters as I've seen him this year. Still has a problem closing out hitters. In the 6th inning. Perez had Tyler Kuhn 0-2, before needing 10 pitches to secure a ground out. In the 7th, had Jon Gilmore 0-2, surrendered a 10 pitch walk; had the next hitter, John Curtis 0-2, before he hit a ground ball single on the 7th pitch.

Hickory has a 10am start on Tuesday, so hopefully they will find Kannapolis still looking for sleep at this time of morning....

-Mark