Barber Belts Key Home Run in Tourists 4-2 Win

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists opened up their six-game series against the Hickory Crawdads on Tuesday night and overcame a 2-0 deficit to pick up a win in Game One, 4-2. The visitors were held scoreless in eight of their nine frames while the Tourists won their third straight overall.

Ernesto Jaquez pitched three scoreless innings for the Tourists before a few soft singles in the fourth inning led to a pair of Crawdads runs. Jaquez limited the damage and came back out to work a scoreless fifth inning.

Asheville’s offense did most of their damage in the bottom of the fourth. Chad Stevens and Michael Sandle each reached base on singles to set the table for Colin Barber. Asheville’s outfielder smoked his second Home Run of the season over the right field wall to give the home team a 3-2 lead.

The score remained 3-2 in large part due to Jacob Coats’ three shutout frames out of the Tourists bullpen. Coats did not allow more than one base runner in any of his innings.

The Tourists added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Stevens stole third and scored on Will Wagner’s Sacrifice Fly. Danny Cody came in and pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his fourth save of the season.

Asheville and Hickory will square off in Game Two on Wednesday night at 6:35pm ET.

Tourists Game Recaps are presented by Jackson Electrical Contractors, Inc