Season Ends with 7-6 Loss to Charleston

Charleston, SC- A three-run fifth inning gave the Charleston RiverDogs a lead they would not surrender on Friday night, as the Hickory Crawdads fell 7-6 in the decisive game of the 2026 Southern Division Championship Series at Joseph P. Riley Ballpark.

Josh Owens got the start for Hickory and continued to deliver scoreless innings for the Crawdads, as the right-hander tossed two hitless frames before a one hour and forty-three minute rain delay came through as Moises Morales began his warmup tosses to take over in relief.

Just before the delay, the Crawdads claimed an early 1-0 lead in the third, as Marco Argudin singled, got to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Paulino Santana sacrifice fly.

After the rains fell in the third, Charleston took advantage of a single and two walks to send Cooper Flemming to the plate with a chance to do damage. Cooper drilled a grand slam off Crawdads' reliever Geury Rodriguez that bounced half way up the batters' eye to put Charleston ahead 4-1.

The Crawdads would chip away at the deficit, scoring two runs in the fourth and single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Deward Tovar doubled to left field in the fifth inning, scoring Paulino Santana, to tie the game at 4-4 midway through the contest.

However, the usually reliable Hickory bullpen endured a number of high-leverage situations, and the pressure took a toll.

Charleston would draw three walks in the inning and get a defensive miscue from the Crawdads that loomed large, as Charleston bumped their lead to 7-4.

The 'Dads surrendered seven walks in the contest, with five of the free passes ultimately producing runs.

Hickory cut the lead to 7-6 in the ninth, before Yereny Teus got a ground ball from Seong-Jun Kim to close out the ballgame.

Teus earned the save for Charleston in support of Bryce Shaffer, who earned the win for the RiverDogs.

Rodriguez suffered the final setback for Hickory, as the Crawdads close out their first Carolina League postseason one game shy of the championship series.

With the win, Charleston goes for their first league title since 2023 against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers on Sunday.

With the loss, the Crawdads end their season with 82 regular season wins, the franchise highest winning percentage (.636) and the team's first playoff win since 2019.