Vickerson Homers Twice in 5-1 'Dads Win
Lakewood, NJ - Crawdads catcher Nick Vickerson looked right at home filling in at a new position Saturday night, as the versatile player launched two home runs, including an inside-the-park dinger, to help the 'Dads to a 5-1 win over the Lakewood BlueClaws at FirstEnergy Park.
Starting just his second game ever at catcher, Vickerson had his biggest night of the year at the plate going 2-3 with two homers, three RBI and a walk. The rest of the 'Dads lineup combined for two runs and four hits.
Vickerson got the scoring started early, as he followed a leadoff triple from Nick Williams with a two-run blast to left to give the 'Dads a 2-0 lead in the first. The Crawdads then picked up their third run in the third without the benefit of a hit. Williams and Vickerson both walked with one out, before Williams took third on a wild pitch and eventually scored on an RBI sacrifice fly from Ronald Guzman to make the score 3-0.
Vickerson came through again in the top of the sixth, this time with his inside-the-park solo shot. Leading off the inning, Vickerson launched a high fly ball deep into the left field corner off of BlueClaws starter Jonathan Musser. Lakewood left fielder Larry Greene Jr. immediately threw his hands up indicating he had lost the ball in the sky, and by the time the ball landed on the warning track Vickerson was already rounding second before coming home without a throw.
The unconventional long ball marked the second time this year the Crawdads have hit an inside-the-park homer, with Ryan Rua also accomplishing the feat back on April 11th in Kannapolis. The two home run night is the first multi-homer game of the year for Vickerson, and also pushes the Crawdads season home run total to 132.
The 'Dads picked up their final tally in the top of the 7th on an RBI single by Hirotoshi Onaka, while the BlueClaws plated their only run in the bottom of the inning when Brian Pointer hit a solo homer off Hickory reliever Jose Monegro to end the scoring at 5-1.
Crawdads starting pitcher Connor Sadzeck (9-2) earned the win for the 'Dads, as the tall right-hander worked his way through 5.1 scoreless innings allowing three hits, five walks and one strikeout. Musser (1-4) took the loss with four runs allowed on four hits, three walks and 4 Ks over 6 innings pitched.
The Crawdads improve to 14-8 with the win, while the loss snaps the BlueClaws 6-game winning streak and drops them to 10-13 in the second half. The two teams will meet up again Sunday at 5:05 pm for game three of their 4-game series.
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