Hickory Crawdads 5 Savannah Sand Gnats 2

The second game of the four game series between the Savannah Sand Gnats and the Hickory Crawdads was played in front of 1,992 fans Friday evening(April 20, 2012) at Grayson Stadium. With the score tied 2-2 going into the 13th inning, Hickory scored 3 runs on 4 hits to win the game 5-2. Hickory out hit Savannah 13-5.

The Gnats scored their first run in the first inning. Brandon Brown singled, reached second on a hit by Cam Maron and scored on a groundout into a double play. Their second run was scored in the 7th inning when Dustin Lawley singled and stole second base. A fly ball out to right field moved Lawley to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly to center.

It seemed starting Savannah pitcher Domongo Tapia threw every fastball in the 90-97 range, striking out 9 batters, pitching 5 2/3 innings, allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, and walked one. Estarlin Morel pitched 2 2/3 shut out innings, allowed 3 hits and struck out 6. T J Chism pitched 2 2/3 shutout innings, struck out 6 and walked 1. Jared West(L, 1-1) pitched 2 innings,  allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and struck out 2. Collectively, Gnats pitchers struck out 23 Crawdads.

Game 3 of the 4 game series will be played Saturday at 6:05pm at Grayson Stadium.