KANNAPOLIS— It finally worked.
You know that pickoff play where the runners are on first and third and the pitcher fakes toward third, then whirls and tries for the guy at first? The one where everyone in the stadium groans because they’ve seen it a thousand times and it never works?
It worked for Wyatt Allen and the Intimidators onWednesday night — until a balk call wiped one out away and sent the first of two runs home.
Hickory scored more than just those two runs in the third inning, but the play set the tone for its 8-3 victory over the Intimidators at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.
“One umpire — and he’s a good umpire, by the way — said he stepped toward home,”said Kannapolis manager Razor Shines, who vociferously argued the balk call on Allen. “If that’s what he saw, then it is a balk. When he says he saw it that way, I can’t argue with him.”
Kannapolis (8-16) suffered far more problems than one questionable call. Hickory (18-8) added a third run in the top of the fourth when Jeremy Cotten doubled and scored on Brandon Chaves’ chopper that sky-rocketed over first baseman Casey Rogowski when it hit the seam between the dirt and grass.
Vic Buttler led off the fifth inning with a triple and scored on an infield grounder that was bobbled, leaving the only play at first. And after Kannapolis rallied within 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth, Allen’s first pitch in the sixth went screaming over the left-field fence off the bat of Efren Espinoza.
Hickory tacked on another run in the frame with a pair of two-out singles and an error throwing the ball back into the infield.
The Intimidator offense, meanwhile, struggled mightily against an imposing Crawdad hurler with a far-from-menacing earned run average.
Chris Young, a 6-foot-10 right-hander who once starred in basketball at Princeton University, entered Wednesday’s game with a 5.32 ERA, but Kannapolis managed just two hits through the first four innings.
One of those was Juan Santamarina’s solo bomb to right field in the third inning to make the score 2-1. In the fifth, John Lackaff dumped a bloop single to short right and scored on Joey Gillikin’s liner to the gap. Another double, this time a bloop from Santamarina, set up a sac fly by Michael Spidale for a 4-3 deficit.
Kannapolis would muster just one more hit over the final four innings — a Spidale bunt single. Young ended up with the complete-game six-hitter, walking none and striking out six.
“He did a good job. He was moving the ball in and out,”Shines said.
The fans started moving out in the top of the ninth as a light mist turned into a heavy drizzle. The rain slacked off long enough for the final few outs to be recorded and the Intimidators trudged back to the clubhouse.
The mood wasn’t exactly a celebratory one in honor of Shines’ birthday.
“They were flat out better than we were tonight,”Shines said. “Hitting, pitching, managing — everything.”
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NOTES: Hickory’s No. 9 man, catcher Zach Riera, ended the night 0-for-1 with two runs scored. He was hit by a pitch in three of his at-bats and walked a fourth time. … Relievers Steve Madril andCurtis Young each surrendered one run for Kannapolis. Madril’s came home on a pair of walks, a hit by pitch and fielder’s choice. Young’s was unearned after a triple and passed ball in the ninth. … The series resumes tonight with a Thirsty Thursday showdown between Hickory’s Mike Connolly (8-2) and Intimidator Dan Mozingo (5-3).
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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