‘Dads Double Up on Charleston 6-3

Hickory, NC- Marcos Torres and Esteban Mejia slugged a pair of two-run homers to support a stellar bullpen effort by the Hickory Crawdads on Wednesday night, defeating Charleston 6-3 at LP Frans Stadium.

The Crawdads scored all their runs in the first four frames to jump out on RiverDogs starter Jacob Kmatz.

Torres left the yard in the first inning with an opposite field shot to left, plating Gavin Fien, to give starting pitcher Jesus Lafalaise an early 2-0 advantage. Torres' dinger was his sixth of the season.

In the second, Mejia drilled a pitch out to left field, scoring Jack Collins, upping the lead to 4-0. Mejia's clout was his third of the 2025 campaign.

Yolfran Castillo and Hector Osorio padded the lead with RBI singles in the third and fourth innings to round out the scoring for Hickory (67-60, 34-28).

Osorio and Deward Tovar led the nine-hit attack with multi-hit games.

Brailer Guerrero collected his first of three hits for Charleston (66-61, 31-30) in the fourth inning, sparking a three-run rally to trim the Crawdads lead to 5-3.

In the fifth, Owen Proksch began a run of dominant pitching for the Crawdads, as the left-hander struck out four Charleston batters before giving the ball to Kyle Larson.

Larson would add his signature to the contest, striking out five hitters over two frames. The only Charleston batter to reach in that four-inning span was Brailer Guerrero, who singled in the sixth and eighth innings.

In the ninth, Frank Martinez nailed down his third save of the season in as many chances to push the Crawdads to their second straight win over the RiverDogs. The back-to-back wins marked the first time Hickory has done so against their Southern Division rival.

Proksch (2-1) took the win for Hickory, while Kmatz (4-9) was saddled with the setback.

Tomorrow, the Crawdads will send Evan Siary to the mound as they look to make it three consecutive against Charleston with a 7pm first pitch.