Winston-Salem Rallies in Eighth, Take Down Crawdads, 9-6

WINSTON-SALEM, NC (June 1^st, 2024) – Trailing by a run going to the bottom of the eighth, the Winston-Salem Dash used patience at the plate to wear down Hickory Crawdads pitching, coming from behind to defeat the Crawdads, 9-6, on Saturday evening at Truist Stadium in front of 6,933 fans.

Hickory (21-29) started the scoring quickly in the top of the first inning. Yeison Morrobel doubled home the game’s first. In the second, the visitors added two more on a two-run homer by Alejandro Osuna putting the Crawdads ahead, 3-0.

Winston-Salem (23-27) could not find an answer in the first two innings, and in the third, Hickory tacked on one more run taking a 4-0 lead into the middle innings.

The second time through the order fared better for the Dash offense. With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Bryce Willits tripled and came home to score on a double by Colby Smelley getting the Dash on the board, 4-1. After the double, Winston-Salem kept the line moving and with two runners on, Loidel Chapelli singled home a run cutting the Crawdads lead in half, 4-2. With two runners in scoring position, Mario Camilletti smoked a single down the left field line tying the game at four in the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Winston-Salem took its first lead of the evening. Willits led the inning off with a single and moved to third on another double by Smelley. With one out, Chapelli brought home Willits on a RBI single pushing the Dash in front, 5-4.

The lead for Winston-Salem was short lived with the Crawdads tying the game at five in the sixth, and in the seventh, Yosy Galan tripled to lead off the inning and scored on a single from Ian Moller putting the visitors back in front, 6-5.

Trailing by a run, the Dash threatened in the bottom of the eighth. Chapelli singled to open the frame and the next two batters walked loading the bases with no outs. New Crawdads arm, Adrian Rodriguez, took over for Yohanse Morel, and walked Eddie Park to bring home the tying run. With the bases still loaded, Rodriguez then hit Calvin Harris to bring home the go-ahead run moving Winston-Salem in front, 7-6. The Dash pushed across two more runs on a walk and wild pitch, taking a 9-6 lead into the ninth.

Jared Kelley entered for the ninth looking for his fourth save on the year. The Crawdads got two runners on and brought the tying run to the plate in Jayce Easley with two outs. Kelley bared down, punching out Easley, closing out the 9-6 victory.

Bryce Collins earned the win after he struck out the side in the top of the eighth, while Yohanse Morel was tabbed with the loss and Kelley picking up the save.

Winston-Salem and Hickory meet for the final time this week on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. from Truist Stadium.