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Oliver Get First Career Win as Crawdads defeat Catfish

May 13, 2008 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Columbus Catfish News Release


Columbus, GA - The Hickory Crawdads (17-22) were able to win a game that saw runs scored in 8 of the 18 half-innings by a final score of 7-5 over the Columbus Catfish (17-21) Tuesday night.

After working out of a bases loaded, 1out jam in the top of the 1st, Hickory came back with a vengeance, as Bobby Spain hit a line drive home run, his 2nd of the year, over the right field fence to give Hickory a 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless 3rd, Hickory put up 2 more runs in the 4th inning when a Glenn Gibson wild pitch allowed Spain to cross the plate and than a Jose De Los Santos infield single plated Tom Hagan. Columbus would answer back in the bottom of the 4th with a Reid Fronk sacrifice fly to center field that plated Shawn O'Malley, who singled to start the inning and extended his hitting streak to 8 games.

Columbus would add another run in the bottom of the 5th when an Emeel Salem infield single plated Stephen Vogt, who had a single to start the inning.

Hickory answered in the top of the 6th with a Tom Hagan solo home run to right center field, his 2nd of the season to re-establish Hickory's lead at 4-2. Columbus answered with another run in the bottom of the 6th when Henry Wrigley's singled plated Greg Sexton to make it a 4-3 ballgame.

However, Hickory tried to put the game away in the 7th with 3 runs. Erik Huber's single drove in Austin McClune, who led off the inning with a walk. Andrew Walker than singled but Miles Durham was thrown out at the plate by a perfect throw from Fronk. With 2 runners on, Jose Mejias came on to attempt to get out of the jam, but Spain continued to stroke the ball and laced a double to the left-center gap that drove in both Huber and Walker. Columbus would not back down however. Michael Felix came on to start the 7th and he allowed a Salem single, an O'Malley walk and than allowed Loyola to reach on an error by second baseman Silvio Pena. Sexton than singled to center that drove in Salem and than Fronk hit his 2nd sacrifice fly of the game to drive in O'Malley. Felix would strike out McCormick, but than walked Vogt to load the bases. Hickory brought in Tom Boleska and he forced a Henry Wrigley ground out to end the threat. Boleska would work the final 2 innings to end the game by a final score of 7-5.

Hickory was led offensively by Bobby Spain, who went 3-5 and was just a triple shy of the cycle. He scored 2 runs, had a double and a home run and drove in 3. Tom Hagan also had a home run and a 2 hit day and Miles Durham, Erik Huber and Silvio Pena each had 2 hits. On the mound, Zac Oliver baffled the Columbus hitters, throwing 5 innings and allowing just 4 hits to get his 1st win of his young career and evened his record at 1-1. Tom Boleska threw the final 2 and 1/3 innings to get his 2nd save of the season

Columbus had a team attack. Emeel Salem, Maiko Loyola, Greg Sexton and Stephen Vogt all had 2 hits while Reid Fronk drove in 2. Glenn Gibson dropped to 1-5 on the season after allowing 7 hits and 3 runs in 5 innings of work.

The Catfish and Crawdad play the 3rd game of their 4 game series Wednesday at 7:00 at Golden Park. The pitching matchup is Joshua Johnson against Dustin Molleken.

The Catfish are the Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

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