Winston-Salem, N.C. – After allowing three runs in the first, the Charleston RiverDogs comeback bid fell short in their 5-3 loss to the Hickory Crawdads on Friday night at Truist Stadium.
Hickory took advantage of two walks and a hit batter to push across their first three runs of the night in the bottom of the first.
Charleston responded in the top of the second when Nicandro Aybar grounded an RBI single to center that cut the deficit to 3-1.
Charleston tacked on another in the top of the third when Cooper Flemming blasted an opposite field homer to left that brought them within one run. The homer marked his second of the week and fifth on the season.
Starter Aidan Cremarosa was strong after a tough first inning, finishing the night completing 4.2 innings allowing only three earned runs.
In the top of the seventh, Charleston grabbed another run back when Flemming grounded into an RBI fielder’s choice play to make it 4-3.
The Crawdads responded with one more in the bottom of the seventh when Paulino Santana lifted an RBI double to left that capped scoring at 5-3.
Yereny Teus, Jayden Voelker and Bryce Shaffer were effective out of the pen, limiting Hickory to just one run over 3.1 frames.
With the loss, Charleston fell to 23-20 while Hickory moved to 22-19. The two return to Truist Stadium tomorrow for game five of the series with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m. Coverage begins at 6:15 on the RiverDogs Broadcast Network.