Hickory, NC – The Charleston RiverDogs clawed their way to an exhilarating 9-8 ten-inning victory over the Hickory Crawdads in Game One of the Carolina League South Division Series at LP Frans Stadium on Tuesday night.
At the plate, Charleston tallied 16 hits, their second-most in a postseason game over the last 21 years, only behind their 17-knock performance in 2023 (Sep. 15 at Myrtle Beach). It also marked just their fourth performance of nine runs or more over the stretch.
Slater de Brun led the way, finishing 4-for-5 with three runs batted in. He joins Junior Caminero and Xavier Issac as the only RiverDogs to notch four hits and drive in three or more since at least 2005. Cooper Flemming, Taitn Gray, Tom Poole and Dean Moss also delivered multi-hit nights.
The RiverDogs jumped on the board right away in the top of the first when Gray brought home de Brun with an RBI triple to right.
An inning later, the RiverDogs took advantage of two errors and brought across four more runs to jump out to a 5-0 lead. The frame was highlighted by RBI singles from de Brun and Andreimi Antunez.
Starter Luke Jackson set the tone with two scoreless frames and punched out three.
Hickory began to chip away and eventually tied the game after a three-run fifth and two-run sixth.
The RiverDogs instantly broke the 5-5 tie in the seventh when Dean Moss punched a go-ahead single to left to make it 6-5.
Hickory took advantage of two errors in the bottom of the seventh to take a 7-6 lead, before the RiverDogs entered the ninth down to their final three outs. Poole led off the frame by blasting a titanic solo shot to right to miraculously even the score at 7-7.
In the top of the tenth, de Brun delivered the lead by grounding an RBI single to center that brought home the automatic runner Angel Mateo and made it 8-7. Later in the frame, Gray lined a sacrifice fly to center to push the lead to two.
In the bottom of the tenth, Deward Tovar rolled an RBI triple to right that brought the Crawdads within a run. However, Efrailin Ramos punched out Josh Springer to end the ball game, and earn the thrilling 9-8 win.
Yereny Teus was also stellar out of the pen, tossing 1.2 shutout and hitless frames while fanning four. Bryce Shaffer provided a scoreless inning as well.
With the victory, Charleston took a 1-0 series lead, moving them a win shy of advancing to the Carolina League Championship Round for the first time since 2023. After a day off on Wednesday, the two clubs will meet in Charleston for Game Two of the series on Thursday. Coverage will be available on the RiverDogs Broadcast Network at 6:50 with first pitch slated for 7:05 p.m.