Crawdads shut down RiverDogs

Duke Welker and the Hick-ory Crawdads bullpen held the Charleston RiverDogs to three hits and just missed on getting the shutout in a 6-1 victory in front of 2,809 fans at Riley Park on Sunday.

It was Hickory's second straight win over Charleston after losing the first nine meetings this season.

Welker (3-8) allowed only two hits and three walks while striking out six in six innings.

On the other side, Charleston starting pitcher Jairo Heredia (5-4) came out strong, striking out the first three batters he faced, but trouble erupted in the second inning when the Crawdads (13-23 second half, 43-63 overall) took a 3-0 lead.

Erik Huber led off with a single and Tom Hagan hit a slow grounder to the third base side where Bradley Suttle charged in to scoop the ball. Suttle considered going to second but changed his mind when he realized Huber was almost there. He then had to rush his throw to first, and it pulled Brandon Laird off the bag for an error. A single loaded the bases and a wild pitch brought the first run home. Hickory led 3-0 after a groundout and another single.

Heredia finished with eight strikeouts, but he loaded the bases again in the sixth inning and gave up two more runs.

"It was the same stuff we'd been doing — missing the cutoff man and making defensive mistakes," Charleston manager Torre Tyson said. "We keep making these mistakes and it turns into three-, four-, five-run innings, and then it just deflates our offense, which shouldn't happen."

Welker didn't allow a hit until Justin Snyder and Carmen Angelini hit consecutive singles with two outs in the fourth, but he struck out Prilys Cuello to end the threat. After allowing a walk to Abraham Almonte in the fifth, Hickory pitchers recorded 12 straight outs.

Charleston (16-18, 61-43) avoided the shutout when Austin Krum drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth to drive in Laird, who had doubled.

Ballpark fun

In between some innings, fans were treated to some martial arts demonstrations, which included board-breaking and twirling sharp and dangerous weapons.

Coming up

The RiverDogs and Crawdads meet for the final time in the regular season today at 7:05 p.m. The scheduled starters are Charleston righthander Lance Pendleton (6-6, 3.60 ERA) and Hickory righty Matt McSwain (3-4, 2.03).

E—Pena, Suttle. DP—Chas 2. LOB—Hick 6, Chas 9. 2B—Hagan, Laird. SB—Almonte.