Tourists Go Quiet Against Crawdads Bullpen

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists offense jumped out to a quick start on Friday night; however, the bats had a tough time down the stretch and Asheville fell to the Hickory Crawdads 7-3. The Tourists were held without a hit during the game’s final four innings and the Crawdads used a trio of unearned runs to build a comfortable lead in the fifth.

Asheville plated two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Zach Cole led off with a double and quickly scored on a Logan Cerny RBI single. Cerny came around on Tim Borden II’s single to right-centerfield and the Tourists led 2-0.

The Crawdads scored the game’s next four runs; one in the second, one in the third, and two in the fourth. The Tourists pulled within a run when John Garcia led off the fifth inning with a double and Cerny drove him in with a one-out RBI single.

Hickory answered with three soft runs in the top of the sixth. All three were unearned against Asheville’s reliever Luis Angel Rodriguez. The Tourists lefty pitched five innings out of the bullpen and did not surrender any earned runs.

Kobe Kato led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and the Crawdads immediately went to their bullpen. Hickory’s relivers held the Tourists without a hit the rest of the game. Garcia, Cerny, and Borden II all finished with two hits. Deylen Miley struck out five in his 3.2 innings of work.