Homers, Relief Pitching Help Hickory Edge Catfish

The Hickory Crawdads, on the strength of two home runs and strong late inning relief pitching, held on to defeat the Columbus Catfish 6-5 at Golden Park in Columbus, GA Tuesday. Shelby Ford and Eddie Prasch each homered in the game, while Derek Drage and Justin Vaclavik allowed only two baserunners over the last 3 1/3 innings to give first round pick Brad Lincoln (1-1) his first win as a Crawdad.

The Crawdads opened the scoring in the second inning. Designated hitter Mike McCuistion led off the inning with a triple down the line in right. McCuistion scored two outs later on a ground out by Jason Delaney making the score 1-0.

Hickory added a second run in the fourth inning off Catfish starter David Horlacher (1-3). Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen led off with a double to left field and advanced to third on an error by left fielder Lucas May. Mike McCuistion followed with a single to center to score McCutchen.

The Catfish tied the score in their half of the fourth as Travis Denker and Anthony Harper led off the inning with back-to-back home runs against Crawdad starter Brad Lincoln.

Hickory responded in their next at bat with a solo home run by Eddie Prasch -- his fourth in four days, after hitting none in his professional career prior -- and a two run shot by Shelby Ford to give Hickory a 5-2 lead.

Hickory scored their final run of the night in the sixth inning. Right fielder Brad Corley led off the inning with a walk, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Corley then scored on a double by Jason Delaney.

Columbus had several opportunities to score against Brad Lincoln, but like Tuesday night, the Catfish left several runners in scoring position. Columbus left runners at third in the first and second innings. In the fifth, Columbus had a runner thrown out at the plate, and stranded a runner at third. In five innings against Brad Lincoln, Columbus reached on eight hits, but scored only the two solo homers in the fourth.

Columbus made the game close in the sixth against Crawdad reliever Jean Garavito. Anthony Harper led off with a double to center. After a Lucas May strikeout, David Sutherland doubled to left, with Harper going to third. Chris Jensen singled to left, scoring Harper and moving Sutherland to third. Sutherland scored on a fielder's choice ground out by Shane Justis. Bridger Hunt followed with a double to center to bring home Justis to make the score 6-5. After walks to Ivan DeJesus and Jason Mooneyham loaded the bases, Derek Drage was brought in to protect the lead. Drage closed the inning out by getting Travis Denker to hit a foul ball fly out in right.

Derek Drage and Justin Vaclavik were outstanding in their relief roles. Combined, the two pitchers allowed only two baserunners, collecting 7 of the final 10 outs on ground balls. Vaclavik picked up his eighth save of the season with his scoreless ninth inning of work.

The Crawdads and Catfish do battle on the banks of the Chattahoochee again on Wednesday night.