Tourists Pull Off Biggest Comeback Win of the Year

HICKORY- The Asheville Tourists overcame a six-run deficit to defeat the Hickory Crawdads in extra innings on Thursday night by a final score of 12-9. Asheville pounded out a season-high 23 hits and stunned the Crawdads home crowd with a thrilling Game Three victory.

The previous largest come-from-behind win was in late April when the Tourists trailed at Bowling Green by five runs and came back to win in extras. Tonight, Asheville fell behind 6-0 after three innings. The score remained 6-0 until the Tourists rallied for four runs in the top of the sixth, all with two outs.

Asheville then took the lead in the top of the seventh on a Collin Price RBI single followed by a Zach Dezenzo two-run double. The Crawdads tied the game in the bottom of the seventh but Tommy Sacco Jr. put Asheville back on top 8-7 with an RBI single in the eighth. Hickory used a two-out RBI double in the ninth to force extras.

In the tenth, Miguel Palma lined an RBI single into right, Michael Sandle ripped an RBI single into center, Kobe Kato brought home a run with a single into left, and Asheville added one more on a wild pitch. The Crawdads plated their automatic runner but that was it for the home team in the tenth.

Palma and Price both finished with four hits. Kato, Sacco Jr., and Sandle all had three. Dezenzo went 2-for-6 with three RBI and Jacob Melton put together a 2-for-5 night with a pair of stolen bases. Ryan Clifford and Tim Borden II also contributed hits to the offensive attack.

Edinson Batista took the mound to begin the game but left in the third inning with an ailment. Logan VanWey, Michael Knorr, and Max Roberts pitched the final 7.1 innings and allowed a total of only one earned run.

The Tourists are 4-1 in extra-inning games this season and are 8-2 over their last ten contests.