The Hickory Crawdads took down the Asheville Tourists 6-3 in Tuesday’s series opener.

Asheville took a 1-0 lead as the second batter of the game hit a solo homerun.

The Crawdads tied it up in the bottom of the first. Daniel Mateo reached on a fielding error by the second baseman and stole second, his tenth steal of the year. Maximo Acosta walked, and Mateo stole third to put runners on the corners. Acosta was thrown out trying to steal second and Mateo dashed home on the play to make it a 1-1 game.

The ‘Dads put up three in the fourth to pull ahead. Josh Hatcher and Tucker Mitchell kicked off the inning with doubles to put two runners on. Abimelec Ortiz drove a homerun to left, his first hit for the Crawdads.

The offense kept rolling in the fifth, getting two more across. Alejandro Osuna was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a double by Acosta. Acosta was able to take third on a wild pitch during Josh Hatcher’s at bat and tagged up to come home on a sacrifice fly by Tucker Mitchell.

Asheville scored two in the sixth but the ‘Dads held them scoreless for the rest of the night.

The teams will meet again Wednesday morning at 11am for an Education Day by Dippin’ Dots. It is also an OrthoCarolina Senior Day.