The Hickory Crawdads won their eighth consecutive game on Wednesday afternoon, beating the Greensboro Grasshoppers 6-2.

Abimelec Ortiz went deep, for the second time in as many days, putting the Crawdads ahead 1-0.

The ‘Dads rallied for four runs in the fourth. Maximo Acosta doubled and stole third while Ortiz drew a walk. Cody Freeman hit a high pop up in front of third base that bounced off the fielder’s glove and was kicked into the dugout. The umpire awarded two bases to the runners with the ball going out of play, scoring Acosta and sending Ortiz to third and Freeman to second. Frainyer Chavez hit a bloop single to right, bringing in a run. Daniel Mateo legged out a triple to drive in Freeman for the fourth run of the inning.

Josh Stephan wrapped up his afternoon after five perfect innings. He struck out ten batters and threw 42 of his 57 pitches for strikes.

Greensboro scored two in the sixth but still trailed the ‘Dads.

The Crawdads got the final run of the game across in the sixth, to bring the score to 6-2. Ortiz and Chavez walked while Galan grounded out but advanced the lead runner with a ground out. Mateo singled in Ortiz with a ground ball to right.

The red-hot ‘Dads will square off against the Grasshoppers again Thursday night at 7pm with a Llamas de Hickory game.