We’re Underway… Finally!
By John • Apr 6th, 2008 • Category: Farm System
The Hickory Crawdads finally got their 2008 season underway tonight against the West Virginia Power at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina. The weather was rather poor, and rain fell during most of tonight’s double header. The good thing about tonight’s double header is that we will complete this four-game series with another double header at the park tomorrow.
Duke Welker took the mound for Hickory’s opening game, and did well considering the wet conditions. The Duke went four innings, giving up two hits and one run while walking two and striking out three. West Virginia’s John Alonso tattooed one of Welker’s high fast balls over the right field wall in the second inning. The ‘Dads picked up two more runs in the third on a 2-run dinger from Crawdads catcher Ronald Pena to make the score 3-1 in favor of Hickory.
After Welker’s four frames, Hickory brought in Matt Foust from the pen. In tonight’s case, I’ll blame it on the rain, but Foust had a poor showing. He struck out his first batter, allowed a single, and then West Virginia’s Lee Haydel grounded out to bring the out count to two. This was the last out Foust would see in tonight’s game. Instead of me spewing the madness that followed, check out the game recap for the top of the 5th inning HERE. Foust gave up two hits, four runs (all earned), and three walks while only striking out one to get his season started with a 54.00 ERA. Matt McSwain picked up the slack in the top of the 5th and didn’t give up but two hits for the rest of the game. Hickory lost the first game by a score of 5-3.
I’m not going to dig in on Hickory’s pitching this early in the season 
As we all know, our pitching last year was problematic, and I don’t want to start re-living those horrors during opening week.
Game 2 was a little less costly to the Hickory hurlers. Hickory scratched out a 3-2 win in extra innings of game 2, so we finish the double header with a split. I look forward to tomorrow’s double header that starts at 3pm. The weather is supposed to be sunny and the temps in the mid 60s. Sounds like a good day for shorts and a little SPF 50.
John M. Setzler, Jr.
(the guy with the camera)
John is the guy with the camera.
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Nice recap John. McSwain could easily be a diamond in the rough if his arm is healthy. The young man certainly had a live arm in Bradenton last year but was still battling health issues. Keep him in mind - he’s on very few radar screens. Also, it might be nice to watch pitch counts in Hickory considering the PC there. Nobody should be throwing more than 30 an inning and then sent back out and if they throw anything near 40, I’d like to know.