Greetings from Sarasota! Both the Dayton Dragons and Hickory Crawdads, the class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates broke out the Lumber early Thursday afternoon, with each team plating three runs in the first inning. The Dragons bats went quiet after that but the Crawdads kept hitting pounding out 17 hits and scoring 13 runs on the afternoon pounding Dayton 13-3.
Hickory scored three in the top of the first off Dayton starter Philippe Valiquette to take a 3-0 lead, the Dragons cam back with three in the home half of the first inning on back-to-back home runs. BJ Szymanski hit a two run shot over the wall and right and Bobby Mosby followed with a solo shot to right center and the game was tied up.
The Crawdads took advantage of a stiff breeze blowing out to center, scoring three in the fourth, four in the sixth and three more in the eighth to close out the scoring.
The Dragons wrap up spring training games on Friday with a trip to the Buck O'Neil Complex to take on the Delmarva Shore Birds, the class A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
See you on opening day at Fifth Third Field!
Mike Vander Wood
"Voice of the Dragons"
