Pitchers Strike Out 18 in Win over Crawdads

ASHEVILLE-- The Asheville Tourists pitching staff finished one strikeout shy of matching their season high on Thursday night. Alejandro Requena and company struck out 18 Hickory Crawdads hitters to help lead the Tourists to a 9-4 victory.
Requena led the way with a season-high 10 strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. Requena did not record a strikeout in the first inning, but struck out the side in the second and notched two strikeouts in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. The Tourists starting pitcher then struck out Leody Taveras to begin the sixth before departing.

Offensively, the Tourists were just as effective as their pitchers. Asheville plated two in the second on a Jacob Bosiokovic Home Run. They added one in the third when Tyler Nevin singled home Jose Gomez, and another in the fourth on Brian Serven's RBI single.
In the fifth, the Tourists busted the game open with three more runs. Hickory managed to score three in the sixth inning but it was their only sustained rally of the game. Asheville plated two more in the eighth, one of which came on a Max George RBI double. Overall, the Tourists finished with 14 hits.
Warren Schaeffer was busy throughout the game as the Tourists manager made several pitching changes. Asheville tied a season-high by using six pitchers; five of whom recorded at least one strikeout. The most strikeouts the Tourists have recorded as a team this season is 19 which occurred in a ten inning game on April 28 against Greensboro.
The Tourists have an opportunity to earn their first series sweep of the season on Friday night. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.