Behind timely pitching and clutch hitting, the RiverDogs hung on to defeat the Hickory Crawdads 3-2 on Tuesday night at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, marking Charleston’s first home win of the season in front of a crowd of 3,842.
Jacob Kmatz set the tone for a successful night for the RiverDogs pitching staff, hurling five shutout innings to earn his first professional win.
The RiverDogs bats came to life in the bottom of the third inning. Connor Hujsak scorched a no-doubt home run to left field that started the scoring for Charleston. The homer was followed by an error, walk, and a sacrifice fly by Nathan Flewelling that made it 2-0.
Kmatz ended his evening by working out of a two-on with one-out jam in the top of the fifth inning to keep the lead intact.
In the bottom of the sixth, the RiverDogs collected what would turn out to be the game’s deciding run. After a leadoff walk from Ricardo Gonzalez, JD Gonzalez rolled an RBI double down the right field line to push the lead to 3-0.
Hickory broke up the shutout in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Esteban Mejia walked and Antonis Macias singled, setting up runners on first and second for Yeremy Cabrera. After a passed ball, both runners advanced 90 feet. Cabrera delivered with a two-RBI single to right, shaving the score to 3-2.
R-Dogs' righty Kaleb Corbett bounced back to strand Cabrera, representing the potential tying run, on second.
In the eighth, the Crawdads again put two runners in scoring position, but Jonathan Rumbol escaped the inning by inducing a flyout.
The ninth inning provided one final hurdle for Charleston. Junior William walked two of the first three batters to start the frame, once again putting the potential tying run on second and potential go-ahead run on first.
Like the prior two frames, the RiverDogs reliever delivered, as Williams forced back-to-back flyouts to end the game and earn Charleston’s first save of the year.
Ballpark fun: It was the first Dog Day Tuesday of the season at The Joe, as hundreds of owners brought their canine companions to watch the RiverDogs win. There was a pup-cup eating contest in between innings, with a smaller pup proving to have a large appetite in a winning effort. A game brief game of fetch gone awry delayed the start of the top of the fifth inning, as a German Sheppard chased down a ball in the left field corner.
The RiverDogs and Crawdads will return to action on Wednesday night at 7:05. To celebrate the end of tax season, the first 1,000 fans with single-game seating bowl tickets will have the price of their ticket refunded (in the form of a credit to their ticket account). Tickets are available now at RiverDogs.com.