Late action not enough as RiverDogs lose sixth straight
HICKORY, NC – The RiverDogs scored five runs in the game’s final two frames but fell short 8-6 to the Hickory Crawdads on Friday night at LP Frans Stadium. The defeat is Charleston’s sixth in a row. The RiverDogs trailed from the first inning onwards, as the Crawdads struck for
HICKORY, NC – The RiverDogs scored five runs in the game’s final two frames but fell short 8-6 to the Hickory Crawdads on Friday night at LP Frans Stadium. The defeat is Charleston’s sixth in a row.
The RiverDogs trailed from the first inning onwards, as the Crawdads struck for two runs in the opening frame. With two outs and the bases loaded, Paulino Santana grounded an infield single that forced a throwing error by third baseman Narciso Polanco, opening a 2-0 Hickory lead.
The RiverDogs responded with their first run in the second. Brody Donay led off the frame with a double and scored on Ricardo Gonzalez’s RBI single to cut the lead to 2-1.
After the rocky first inning, RiverDogs starter Andrew Lindsey completed his outing with 1.2 scoreless innings, racking up four strikeouts.
Hanahan grad Trey Pooser took over with two outs in the bottom of the third inning. In the fourth, the Crawdads loaded the bases with no outs. Pooser induced a double play ball, but after the force at second base, Felix Cotes fired a wild throw to first, allowing an additional run to score, growing Hickory’s lead to 4-1.
Those two tallies were the only ones Pooser would allow in his final outing of the season. The righty finished with five strikeouts in 4.1 innings.
Charleston narrowed the deficit to one run in the top of the eighth. Cotes singled and Polanco smoked an RBI triple to cut the lead to 4-2. Brailer Guerrero brought Polanco home on a sacrifice fly, trimming the score to 4-3.
However, Hickory pulled away in the bottom of the inning. Luis Marquez drove in two on an RBI single. The next batter, Esteban Mejia, blasted a two-run home run to balloon the Crawdads’ advantage to 8-4.
The RiverDogs went down swinging in the top of the ninth, rallying for three runs on RBIs from Cotes and Polanco, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
The RiverDogs (66-62, 31-30) will attempt to avoid tying their longest losing streak of the season on Saturday night, with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 pm.