Another day, another frustrating loss for the Crawdads. Today’s loss was fueled by 4 Crawdad errors leading to all 4 runs being scored by the Emperors as the pitching was stellar, but the defense fell short behind the guys on the bump. Aidan Curry finished the day going 4 innings giving up 4 runs (all unearned) on 5 hits with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.
Rome got the scoring started in the bottom of the 1st as Adam Zebrowski singled home Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., after Kilpatrick Jr. reached on an error by 1B Quincy Scott to lead off the game. Bryson Worrell followed that up with a sac fly scoring Sabin Ceballos who reached on a single to center field. Curry settled in after a rocky 1st inning as he pitched a scoreless 2nd and 3rd inning with only 1 walk and 1 hit to go with his 4 strikeouts, 3 of which were looking. The wheels started to fall off in the 4th inning for everyone as Ambioris Tavarez singled to start off the inning, then advanced to 2B on an error by Daniel Mateo in right field. Tavarez went on to score on a double by EJ Exposito, who then scored on a failed pick-off attempt as Curry threw the ball into centerfield and Anthony Gutierrez dropped the ball as he was picking up the ball to throw it back in.
The Crawdads’ bats started to wake up in the top of the 5th as Tucker Mitchell and Yeison Morrobel started the inning with back to back singles. They both advanced on a Quincy Scott groundout, then Yosy Galan drove in the first run for the Crawdads this season on a sac fly to left field. However, the rally was quickly ended as Morrobel was doubled off trying to advance to 3B on the play.
Jackson Kelley and Skylar Hales each pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief to keep the Crawdads in the game. Kelley finished with 0 hits, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts and Hales allowed 2 hits while getting 4 punch outs. The pitching has been lights out to start the season as Hickory loses another gut punch of a game, where all Hickory pitchers used today finished with 0 earned runs.
This game did feature the rare “catcher balk” in the bottom of the 8th as Tucker Mitchell used his face mask to touch the ball before his hand or glove. Weird circumstance that doesn’t happen often, but catchers are not allowed to use any equipment other than their glove to “gather the ball.” So that was fun.
The ‘Dads look to right the ship and take the last game of the series tomorrow afternoon as Brock Porter makes his High-A debut before returning home for a 6 game series against New Jersey starting Tuesday night.
