The Hickory Crawdads took an early lead, lost it, but rallied to win at Aberdeen 7-5 Friday night. The win is Hickory’s fourth in a row over the IronBirds in this road series.

Hickory opened the scoring with a run in the top of the second inning. With Max Acosta on third, Yosy Galan hit a single to score Acosta.

In the third, the Crawdads tacked on three runs. With the bases loaded, Geisel Cepeda doubled allowing Cody Freeman, Abimelec Ortiz and Acosta to all score as Hickory led 4-0. At this point of the contest, Hickory had an 87.7% win probability.

However, Aberdeen scored two in the fifth and three in the sixth to take their first lead of the game.

But the Crawdads rallied with two runs in the seventh inning. Ortiz was walked and then stole his first base of the season. However, the throw by the catcher trying ot pick him off was errant, allowing Ortiz to scramble to third. Tucker Mitchell then singled to score Ortiz. One out later, Mitchell would still second and a pickoff attempt went awry, allowing Mitchell to score on the error.

Hickory got an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Acosta walked and then stole second base. Yet another throwing error allowed Acosta to get to third. Cepeda then reached on an error on the second baseman, but Acosta was held at third. One out later, Griffin Cheney hit a sacrifice fly to right field and Acosta tagged up to score. Only two of the seven Crawdads runs were earned as the IronBirds committed a whopping eight errors.

Hickory improves to 23-10 on the second half of the season, 50-44 overall. Hickory will wrap up the series with games against Aberdeen Saturday and Sunday. The Crawdads are off on Monday and will travel to Asheville Tuesday through Sunday of next week.