Friday, April 6, 2007

Hickory holds off Hagerstown 11-10

In a wild shootout at Municipal Stadium tonight,the visiting Hickory Crawdads held off the late charge of the Hagerstown Suns to grab a 11-10 victory and guarantee a split of the series at worst.
Jamie Romak smashed his 2nd Home Run in two nights and knocked in 4 runs as well.
At this rate Romak should be a Lynchburg Hillcat by Monday!
Catcher Kris Watts added a home run and Alex Presley had 3 singles and a stolen base in a nice performance as well.
Bradley Clapp picked the win allowing 3 runs in his 5 innings of work and Olivo Astacio grabbed the save.
The Crawdads have used every pitcher in their bullpen except for Stephen McFarland.
McFarland should be the first one used tomorrow night,as I was told by an unnamed Hickory pitcher that the policy for this series is for no pitcher to pitch back to back games due to unseasonably cold weather.
The play of the night was a towering shot by Hagerstown's Justin Maxwell that left the park on the trajectory that was still not falling by the time it left the park.
Maxwell's shot went at least 450 feet,IMO.
Simply put-a tremendous bomb!

Other miscellanous notes
Olivo Astacio of the Crawdads was clocked as high as 94 on the radar gun during his game-ending strikeouts of Brett McMillan and Maxwell.
The 6'5 Astacio certainly seems to have a power arm and bears watching.

Another cool night chatting with 4/5th of the Crawdad rotation,tonight Jared Hughes replaced Bradley Clapp sitting in the stands.
Hughes had to put up with me talking the game all night and I am appreciative of his talking with me.

Two firsts tonight for touted prospects-Justin Maxwell and Chris Marrero.
Maxwell's homer was his 1st in Hagerstown and Marrero had his debut RBI's tonight as well.

Tomorrow nite -The Crawdads go for the clinching of the four game series by sending Lefty Michael Felix to the mound vs Hagerstown.
Unfortunately,it looks like I am in GA for that one.

No Pirate update tonight,as I havent watched the game or know the result.
Will watch the tape tonight and offer comments tomorrow.

I will try to add more tomorrow,but the big day appears to be Monday.
Why so?
Because I will offer opinions,frustrations and possible solutions for the people that run the Hagerstown Suns and another topic could be mentioned once I have some finality to the matter.

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