With the Hickory Crawdads in a four-team scramble for the first-half South Division title in the Carolina league, it seemed the team might catch a break by playing the team with the worst record in the league this week.
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans, though, haven’t played along with the script.
Myrtle Beach scored the winning run in the ninth on a balk and edged the Crawdads 3-2 Thursday night at Pelicans Ballpark.
It was the second straight win for the Pelicans (22-36) against Hickory. The streak has kept the Crawdads (30-29) from gaining ground on first-place Kannapolis in the South Division.
The scramble for the first-half division title now has five teams within two games of the lead with six games to play. Kannapolis (32-29) leads Augusta (30-28) by a game and Columbia (31-29) has reached a virtual tie for second. The Fireflies leapfrogged the Crawdads last night, dropping them to fourth. But Hickory is still just 1.5 games behind first-place Kannapolis.
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Much of the scoring came in the opening inning of Thursday’s game. Maxton Martin, batting second, hit his seventh home run of the season to put the Crawdads ahead early. Myrtle Beach responded with a two-run homer by Cameron Sisneros in the bottom of the inning.
The score remained 2-1 until the eighth, as pitching on both sides dominated the opposing lineups. After giving up the Sisneros homer, Dalton Pence retired the remaining seven hitters he faced and struck out five over three innings.
Middle reliever Brock Porter added three more scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Adrian Rodriguez made his debut for Hickory in the seventh, stranding two runners by striking out Ty Southisene and Dilan Granadillo.
However, the Crawdads could not solve Pelicans starting pitcher Kevin Valdez. After the Martin homer, Valdez allowed just one more hit through seven innings, walking one and striking out four.
Myrtle Beach 4, Hickory 3, Wednesday:
Eli Lovich singled in a pair of runs in the fifth on Wednesday to send Myrtle Beach to a 4-3 win over the Hickory.
Wednesday’s game at Myrtle Beach began 51 minutes late due to rain. Once the game started, the Pelicans jumped on the board with two runs in the first inning.
The Crawdads got all three of their runs in the third. Marcos Torres started the rally with a double and moved to third on Chandler’s Pollard single. Pollard stole second to set up two runners in scoring position.
Maxton Martin scored Torres and then Antonis Macias hit a grounder to second base allowing Pollard to beat the throw for the second run. Rafe Perich then doubled in Macias to put Hickory up 3-2.
The game’s decisive rally came in the fifth with the bases empty and two outs. Reliever Grant Cherry walked Cameron Sisneros, who went to third on Ayers’ double. Cherry walked Jose Escobar to load the bases before Lovich sneaked a slow roller through the infield into left for a two-run single.
The Crawdads bullpen held the Pelicans in check the rest of the way. Jake Jekielek tossed a perfect sixth inning, and Michael Trausch worked around a hit and two walks during the seventh and eighth innings.
Hickory 9, Myrtle Beach 4, Tuesday:
Hickory got a 9-4 win over Myrtle Beach in the series opener on Tuesday.
Coming off the emotional high of Sunday’s walk-off win over Columbia, Hickory got things started quickly with three runs in the opening inning. The Pelicans rallied back with two runs in the bottom of the inning off a two RBI single from Cameron Sisneros.
Crawdads starter Ismael Agreda settled down after the initial trouble, facing just one over the minimum before the Pelicans used an error to get even.
The Crawdads quickly struck back in the sixth and never trailed again. Thomas Ireland picked up the win on the mound to improve to 3-2. Will Privette pitched the final two innings for his second save of the season.
Ethan Bell (0-2) gave up the decisive runs in the sixth inning and took the loss.
