Asheville Keeps Pressure On Late, Splits DH

HICKORY- The Asheville Tourists continued their fighting mentality Friday night against the Hickory Crawdads. Asheville erased a deficit in the final inning of Game One and came away with a 5-2 victory. The Tourists nearly did it again in Game Two, but came up inches short and fell 4-3.

In Game One, the Tourists trailed 2-1 going into their final at-bat. Luis Encarnacion hit a two-run single to give Asheville a 3-2 lead. Later in the inning, Anthony Sherwin belted a two-run Home Run to provide the insurance. Railin Perez closed the door in the bottom of the seventh, part of his 2.2 scoreless innings pitched, and earned his first win of the season.

Encarnacion and Ryan Johnson each Homered in the second inning of Game Two; however, the Tourists trailed 4-2 for most of the contest. Once again, in the top of the seventh, Asheville mounted a rally. Johnson, Jackson Loftin, and Luis Baez all singled while Jeron Williams came up a few feet short of a go-ahead Home Run.

With one run in, two men in scoring position and two outs, Austin Deming smashed a line drive but Hickory’s second baseman was able to make the catch and end the game.

The Tourists and Crawdads will play Game Five of the six-game series on Saturday night with the first pitch set for 7:00pm ET.