The Hickory Crawdads fell 7-5 in eleven innings on Thursday against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws.

The Crawdads smacked two homers in the third to take a 5-0 lead. Marcus Smith and Jayce Easley smacked singles to get on for Josh Hatcher, who hit his fourth homer of the season. Liam Hicks collected a two-out base hit and Cody Freeman drove a homerun to left to put the Crawdads up by five.

The BlueClaws chipped away at the lead, scoring a run in the fourth, one in the fifth, two in the sixth, and then tied the game with a run in the seventh.

Crawdads starter Mitch Bratt pitched five innings, allowing two runs on six hits and no walks. He struck out six and lowered his season ERA to 2.70.

The ‘Dads loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth but were unable to get any across.

Jersey Shore scored two in the eleventh inning, bringing the score to its final of 7-5.

The teams will meet again Friday night for a Cinco de Mayo celebration and a Llamas de Hickory game. The first 1,000 fans will receive a Luisangel Acuña bobblehead.