Â鶹´«Ã½

The win sealed a 4-2 series win for Hickory (22-22). The Crawdads finally reached the .500 after missing seven straight opportunities that stretched back to the last road trip two weeks ago.

With the first half of the season ending in just over three weeks, the chase for the first-half division title is heating up for a playoff spot. The Crawdads continue to make things interesting in the Carolina League’s South Division. Hickory remains in fourth place, but the Crawdads sit just a game out of third place and 2½ games behind first-place Augusta.

Hickory has a travel day on Monday to Salisbury, Md., where a six-game series will begin Tuesday evening against the Delmarva Shorebirds. The Crawdads’ next home game is Tuesday, June 3, against the Columbia Fireflies.

In Sunday’s game, Hickory and Myrtle Beach combined for 12 walks, three hit batters and five errors. Myrtle Beach hitters struck out 15 times and together the teams left 21 runners on base.

The Pelicans (17-27) opened up a 2-0 lead in the second, but the Crawdads countered with three in the bottom of the inning. Yeremy Carbrera walked and stole second, then advanced to third on Beycker Barroso’s single. Carbrera scored when Pelicans pitcher Cole Reynolds was charged with a disengagement violation — a third pickoff throw to first base. Erick Alvarez joined Barroso on the bases and both scored on Chandler Pollard’s double.

It was a back-and-forth game from there. What turned out to be the decisive run came in the seventh. With runners on the corners and one out, Torres hit what should have been an inning-ending double play. However, Ty Southisene doubled the relay at second just long enough to make his throw to first too late to catch Torres. The misplay extended the inning and allowed Ben Hartl to score.

Brock Porter (2-0) pitched a perfect seventh, which was enough to pick up the victory. Grant Cherry worked around walks in both the eighth and ninth innings to hold the lead and earn his first save as a pro pitcher.

Crawdads win 4-3 on Saturday

Cabrera sliced a fastball down the line in left field with two outs in the ninth for a run-scoring single to give the Crawdads a 4-3 victory on Saturday.

Hickory took a 1-0 lead in second, as Cabrera singled and later scored on a bases-loaded walk. The Crawdads stranded the remaining three runners and that served as the start of a thread in which they missed chances to stretch the lead. Hickory hitters finished the night with seven hits, seven walks and three hit batters, but stranded 11.

Starting pitcher Mason Molina was nearly unhittable through five innings, seeing one over the minimum and striking out five. However, the Pelicans finally caught a break in the sixth, as the lefty tired and walked a pair with one out. Jose Escobar, who has two game-winning hits in the series, including a grand slam, added a three-run shot over the fence in right — his third of the season — to put Myrtle Beach up 3-1.

Hickory got the runs back in the seventh and the score remained 3-3 until the bottom of the ninth when with one out Maxton Martin singled. Antonis Macias then earned a walk to move Martin to second.

After Pablo Guerrero flied out to left, Cabrera fought off a fastball and got enough on it to place the single into shallow left field, which scored Martin with the winner.

Dalton Pence pitched the final three innings, striking out four of the nine hitters he faced to get the win (3-0). Mathew Peters took the loss to drop to 0-2.

Myrtle Beach wins in extra innings on Friday

On Friday, Jose Escobar provided the go-ahead hit in extra innings to give the Pelicans an 8-7 11-inning win.

Hickory pitching struck out 18 hitters in the game. The effort led by starting pitcher Caden Scarborough, who had eight Ks over 3.1 innings. The Crawdads, once again, struggled to bring in runners, though. A day after stranding 16 during a win on Thursday, Hickory left 13 on base.

Thomas Ireland dropped to 2-2 with the extra-inning loss. Dominic Hambley (1-0) picked up the win in relief for the Pelicans.