The Hickory Crawdads defeated the Aberdeen IronBirds Saturday night on the road, 12-5. Hickory scored five runs in the second inning to take the lead and never look back.

The IronBirds struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. However, the Crawdads scored five in the second to take a 5-1 lead. Abimelec Ortiz led off the second inning with a single and Max Acosta followed with a single. Cody Freeman that hit a ground rule double, scoring Ortiz and moving Acosta to third. One out later, a wild pitch allowed Acosta to score and moved Freeman to third. Griffin Cheney then hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Freeman to reach home. Cooper Johnson then singled, followed by Daniel Mateo hitting a single to left field. Tucker Mitchell then hit a triple, clearing the bases with Johnson and Mateo scoring.

Aberdeen got two runs back in the bottom of the second to pull within two runs, but Hickory scored a single run in the fourth. Geisel Cepeda singled to start the inning and would steal both second and third base. Mateo would single him home. The IronBirds scored two more runs in the home half of the fourth inning, but it was all Crawdads from that point on.

In the fifth inning, Wyatt Langford led off the Crawdads with a single to center field. He would then steal second base. Acosta singled, allowing Langford to score and Acosta would end up on second after a fielding error. Acosta would then score on another fielding error as Freeman reached base. He would be stranded, but the Crawdads led 8-5.

In the sixth inning, Hickory tacked on an additional two runs. Johnson was issued a walk and then stole second base. Mitchell singled and Langford followed with a double. One out later, Acosta reached base on another fielding error wich allowed Mitchell and Johnson to score as the Crawdads took a 10-5 lead.

The Crawdads got a single run in the eighth inning. Mitchell walked to open the inning. One out later, Ortiz reached base on another fielding error which allowed Mitchell to score.

Hickory got the final run of the contest in the top of the ninth when Cepeda homered to right field.

A day after having eight errors, Aberdeen had four miscues in this contest which contributed to four Hickory scores.

Every Crawdads batter had at least one hit on the night, and all but one scored at least one run. Mitchell had a pair of RBI on the night and Mateo collected four hits.

Hickory improves to 24-10 on the second half of the season and have won five straight. They are 51-44 overall. Hickory will wrap up the series with a game against Aberdeen Sunday. The Crawdads are off on Monday and will travel to Asheville Tuesday through Sunday of next week.