Crawdads Drop Season Finale in 5-3 Loss
September 1, 2014 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Hickory Crawdads News Release
Salisbury, MD - The Hickory Crawdads wrapped up their 2014 season in defeat Monday afternoon, as the 'Dads fell to the Delmarva Shorebirds 5-3 in front of a Labor Day crowd of 2,501 at Arthur W. Purdue Stadium.
The loss kept the Crawdads from the series sweep, but the 'Dads still finished with a 3-1 series win over the Shorebirds and a 5-2 the record on road trip to end the season. Hickory's final overall record of 80-59 marked the fifth time in franchise history and the first in their six years as a Rangers affiliate that the Crawdads reached the 80-win plateau.
The 'Dads jumped out to an early lead in the 3rd inning, with the club scoring three runs, one earned, one two hits, two walks, a hit batsman, and an error while sending all nine batters to the plate. Smerling Lantigua and Luis Marte kicked off the frame with consecutive singles against 'Birds starter Janser Severino, before Nick Urbanus reached on a fielding error to load the bases with nobody out. Evan Van Hoosier then drove in the first run with a RBI walk, followed by a RBI hit-by-pitch for Zach Cone and a RBI groundout from Jairo Beras to give the Crawdads a 3-0 advantage.
Delmarva began chipping away from there, with the Shorebirds scoring single runs in the bottom of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings off of Hickory starter Yohander Mendez to tie the game at 3-3. The 'Birds completed their rally in the 7th with two runs scored on four hits against Crawdads relievers Scott Williams and Ricardo Rodriguez to take the 5-3 lead they would go on to win by.
'Birds bullpen arm Nikolaus Nowottnick (1-0) earned the win with a perfect inning of work in the 7th, while teammate Derrick Bleeker earned his first save with five strikeouts over two perfect frames to end the game. Williams (2-1) took the loss for the 'Dads after giving up two runs on four hits over one inning pitched.
Ronald Guzman paced the Hickory offense with two doubles in a 2-4 game, while both Lantigua and Marte finished 1-4 with a run scored.
The Crawdads end the 2nd half with a 39-31 record, four games behind the Hagerstown Suns for the 2nd Half Northern Division title.
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