The Hickory Crawdads picked up their second straight win over the Asheville Tourists Wednesday, winning 7-4 on the road. The Crawdads collected 12 hits and had two home runs in the victory.

Hickory started the scoring in the first inning. After a 27-minute delay to start the game due to wet grounds, the Crawdads opened with Keyber Rodriguez hitting a double on the third pitch of the game. He advanced to third on a wild pitch by the Asheville pitcher. Rodriguez scored when Geisel Cepeda hit a sacrifice fly to left field. The Tourists answered with a run of their own in the home half of the first.

In the second inning, the Crawdads got out of a jam with a rare triple play. After giving up a single to open the second, Crawdads starting pitcher Josh Stephan issued back-to-back walks to load the bases. However, Asheville’s Freddy Guilamo ground into a triple play, hitting his second pitch to Rodriguez at third base. He touched the bag, threw to Frainyer Chavez who touched second and then threw it over to Abimelec Ortiz at first for the triple play.

The score remained knotted at one until the third inning. Hickory opened the inning with Cepeda hitting his second home run of the season to left field, giving the Crawdads a one run advantage. One out later, Ortiz singled and moved to third on a Tucker Mitchell single. Ortiz would score when Daniel Mateo drove him home.

Hickory would tack on two more runs in the fourth inning. After an inning opening walk to Chavez and a pitching change, Jayce Easley was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second. Rodriguez then hit his 10th double of the season, bringing both runners home.

Asheville would get two runs back in the fifth inning, but the Crawdads put the game away for good in the seventh. After Ortiz was walked on four straight pitches to begin the seventh inning, Mitchell hit a two run home run to right center field and Hickory took a 7-3 advantage heading into the stretch. Asheville would score a run in the eighth inning for the final, 7-4 score.

Stephan picked up the win on the mound. He went five full innings, allowing six hits and three runs while walking four but also striking out four.

Offensively, Cepeda and Ortiz both had three hits with Cepeda driving in two. Mitchell also had two RBI thanks to his home run. Ortiz scored twice in the win.

Hickory is 27-34 on the first half of the season. They are scheduled to face Asheville on the road through Sunday.