Riley Pint a Bright Spot in Tourists Loss to Crawdads

HICKORY- The Asheville Tourists dropped a tough one to the Hickory Crawdads on Thursday night by a final score of 6-2. Asheville had a pair of sloppy innings defensively and the Crawdads used that to their advantage by plating five of their six runs in those innings. Offensively the Tourists had a hard time generating much.
Riley Pint was without a doubt the Tourists biggest bright spot on the night. Pint who is still battling back from last season's injury, took charge in the bottom of the seventh inning. The right-hander consistently fired his 100mph fastball for strikes and had a sharp slider in his one inning of work.

Shelby Lackey took another tough luck loss. Lackey gave up only one hard hit ball, a lead-off single in the fourth, and struck out seven over five innings. The Crawdads plated three runs in the fourth inning; a frame where the Tourists committed a pair of errors and misplayed Jose Almonte first two-run double. Almonte added another two-run double in the eighth.
Asheville struggled with the Crawdads pitching but did manage to scrape across two runs in the sixth. Kyle Datres and Cade Harris both reached to begin the frame. After a sacrifice bunt, Grant Lavigne recorded an RBI groundout and Harris later scored on a wild pitch.
With the Tourists two-game road win streak snapped, Asheville will attempt to take the series rubber match on Friday night and start a new streak. The first pitch is slated for 7:00pm.