The Piedmont Boll Weevils proved it Tuesday night at J.P.Frans Stadium when they took on the Hickory Crawdads. The Weevils have two of the South Atlantic League’s biggest players — in size and in clutch production.

When Piedmont’s 6-2 victory was in the books, Nate Espy and Marlon Byrd had added a couple more chapters in seasons that are becoming legendary for both monster mashers.

Espy’s 420-foot, two-run homer in the third and Byrd’s 400-foot, two-run clout in the fifth were more than enough for Frankie Brooks. The left-hander from Brooklyn pitched masterfully through eight innings and helped give Piedmont the upper hand in this four-game battle between the top two teams in the circuit.

Brooks had hurled a three-hitter going into the ninth. When he tired, Justin Fry came on to strike out two of the three batters he faced to secure the gigantic victory.

Piedmont (34-18), which had won just two of its previous seven games, upped its lead in the North Division to 31

Brooks, who has been a starter, then a reliever and now a starter again, said the Weevils have something to shoot for in this series.

“Even though we’re in first place, Hickory is looked at as better than us,” Brooks said. “We wanted to prove them wrong. We wanted to win.”

In a game that matched Duke and Carolina of the SAL, Weevils manager Greg Legg figured the first run would be crucial.

Espy came through with that first run in the second, but ironically, he scored it not on a Babe Ruth-like home run trot but rather with a Pete Rose-like head-first slide.

Espy had opened the inning with a double and two outs later, Brian Hitchcox ripped a single to center fielder Jeremy Harts, who is known for his strong, accurate arm. But the aggressive Legg sent the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Espy around third anyway.

“When it was hit, I thought it was going to be close,” he said. “But you try to reward Hitchcox for his two-out hit.”

Espy lumbered into home and sprawled across the plate as J.R. House took the throw a bit late.

Hitchcox went to second on the play and scored on two straight errors by second baseman Joshua Bonifay, who couldn’t field Carlos Acevedo’s grounder. When he did pick it up, threw past first.

“When we scored early, it let everybody relax,” said Legg.

“The way Brooks was pitching, you thought two runs might be enough,” added Espy.

It was through eight. Brooks had the top-hitting team in the SAL (.299) whiffing and whaling at pitches in the dirt all night long. When he left in the ninth, he had 10 strikeouts and some deserved praise from the opposing manager.

“He had good fastball-changeup, fastball-curveball command,” sighed Jay Loviglio. He kept us off-balance.”

In fact, Hickory’s 3-4-5 hitters (House, Jay Langston and Jovanny Sosa), were held to 1-for-12. House, the league’s leading hitter (.352), was 0-for-4.

On the other side, Piedmont’s 3-4-5 hitters (Byrd, Espy and Jorge Padilla) fared much better against Hickory starter Jeff Bennett (5-3, 2-52). They had four of the Weevils’ six hits and four of the runs.

Byrd and Espy combined to give Piedmont a 4-0 cushion in the third. Byrd was hit on the arm and Espy then sent a rocket over the center-field wall that they’re still looking for on U.S. 321. Byrd made it 6-0 with his blast in the fifth, scoring Jay Sitzman ahead of him.

Take away two pitches and Loviglio thought Bennett pitched pretty well.

“The one to Espy was belt-high, right over the plate,” he said. “It was a mistake pitch to a guy who hits home runs. And Byrd’s so big and strong.”

Brooks made one mistake and it was taken over the left-field wall by leadoff man Jose Castillo, who hit a solo shot with two outs in the sixth. But the Crawdads couldn’t build on that. Brooks sent them down 1-2-3 in the seventh and eighth.

“I felt good all night,” the lefty said. “Iguess in the ninth, it was a mental block or something.”

Brooks (3-2) allowed the first three men to reach in the bottom of the ninth. After Harts’ RBI single, Legg replaced him with Fry, a pretty big boy himself at 6-foot-3, 195. All he did was strike out House, strike out Langston and get Sosa to fly harmlessly to right to end the game.

In the end, Piedmont scored all six runs with two outs. It made no errors while Hickory, which leads the league in that department, added four to its already humongous total of 103.

“That’s probably why Piedmont is winning the first half,” Loviglio said. “They’ve been more consistent day in and day out.”

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