Winston-Salem Bats Light Up Hickory 10-8

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (August 21, 2022) — The Winston-Salem Dash survived a late push from Hickory to win the series finale 10-8.

Alsander Womack reached on a walk with one man out in the top of the first, then Bryan Ramos and Luis Mieses both singled to load the bases. Tyler Osik then lined the first pitch he saw into left field for a two-run double, spotting the Dash to an early 2-0 lead. The inning continued with an RBI groundout from Keegan Fish that pushed Osik to third base, where he then scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0 Dash.

In the bottom of the second, Thomas Saggese singled for the Crawdads, then Cody Freeman later walked. With a runner in scoring position now, Keyber Rodriguez singled into left field, and Saggese crossed the plate with Hickory’s first run.

Jason Matthews singled in the top of the fourth with one out, then Duke Ellis hustled out a two-out infield single. Both men stole a base, then Alsander Womack worked a full count walk, loading the bases. Bryan Ramos delivered with a two-strike, two-run single into center field to put Winston-Salem ahead 6-1. Luis Mieses then fell behind 1-2 in the count, before blasting a three-run home run, his 12th of the season, to give the Dash a 9-1 lead.

Hickory was able to put together a big sixth inning, starting with a Saggese double and a Chris Seise single to put both men in scoring position. After two quick outs, Konner Piotto plated both runs with a double to center field. Jayce Easley then ripped an RBI double himself, before Frainyer Chavez dropped a single into right that scored Easley. It was a four-run inning for the Crawdads, cutting the score to 9-5.

Tyler Osik quickly made it a 10-5 ballgame, when he crushed a leadoff, solo home run in the seventh inning.

The first two batters in the bottom of the eight for Hickory both drew walks, then a sacrifice fly allowed the lead runner Jayce Easley to tag up and go to third. Later, Easley scored on an RBI groundout to second.

Chris Seise led off the bottom of the ninth with a single off Everett Hazelwood, as the Crawdads trailed 10-6. A wild pitch let Seise take second base, then a triple from Keyber Rodriguez plated Seise to make it a 3-run deficit. Skyler Arias came on to replace Hazelwood, and he allowed Rodriguez to score from third on another groundout to second. Arias then struck out Easley, to give the Dash a 10-8 win in the series finale. Arias earned his fourth save, with Garrett Schoenle getting his first win, and Dane Acker suffering the loss.