Crawdads rally past RiverDogs

It started as a trickle and turned into a flood.

The Charleston RiverDogs' pitching staff blew an early 5-0 lead as the Hickory Crawdads banged out 18 hits in a 12-9 victory on Saturday in front of 5,369 fans at Riley Park.

The Crawdads (12-23 second half, 42-63 overall) snapped a 10-game losing streak and beat Charleston (16-17, 62-41) for the first time in 10 tries. It was the most hits by an opponent against the RiverDogs this season, who didn't help themselves with three errors.

"We did everything we could to lose that game," Charleston manager Torre Tyson said. "It starts with terrible defense. We give up a five-run lead. We're throwing to the wrong bases and not keeping the double play in order — all the little things. It's bad baseball, and it's been happening for four months."

Charleston rolled through the first three innings on its way to a 5-0 lead, highlighted by Jesus Montero's 10th homer of the year — a two-run shot to left field.

Starting pitcher Noel Castillo ran into trouble in the fourth, when he gave up four runs on two hits, two walks and two errors. The RiverDogs recovered and padded their lead back to 6-4 when Adam Olbrychowski (5-5) took over. He was able to pitch out of trouble in the fifth and gave up only one run in the sixth. However, he never looked sharp and trouble was waiting for him in the next two innings. The Crawdads teed off on him for 10 hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings. Tyson couldn't pull him any earlier because Olbrychowski had to pitch a team-mandated four innings or 70 pitches.

Reliever Chace Vacek finally took over with one out in the eighth, but he gave up two hits and a walk before registering two strikeouts. Unfortunately, he allowed two runs on a pair of wild pitches while recording the final strikeout.

Hickory's Albert Laboy, Matt Hague and Erik Huber each had three hits, and Keanon Simon drove in three runs.

Bradley Suttle and Austin Romine both had three hits for Charleston.

Ballpark fun

The RiverDogs honored Negro League Baseball by giving away 1,000 replica jerseys of Larry Doby's Newark Eagles. The players also wore throwback jerseys with the RiverDogs in Eagles uniforms and Hickory sporting the Homestead Grays colors.

Coming up

The RiverDogs and Crawdads play the third game of their series today at 4:05 p.m. The scheduled starting pitchers are Charleston right-hander Jairo Heredia (5-3, 2.96 ERA) and Hickory righty Duke Welker (2-8, 4.67).

It's a Family Sunday, so players will be available for autographs after the game, and kids will be allowed to run the bases.

Reach Bill Henley at 937-5595 or bhenley@postandcourier.com.