R'Dogs drop 4th in a row

HICKORY, N.C. -- Leonel De Los Santos' infield RBI single capped a two-run ninth inning rally to give Hickory a 3-2 win over the Charleston RiverDogs in a South Atlantic League matinee Wednesday.

The Crawdads (7-7) have won the first two games of the series. Charleston (5-9) lost its fourth straight. The loss marks the third walkoff defeat during the skid and is the longest losing streak since the RiverDogs lost five in a row last July.

After retiring the first batter of ninth, Charleston closer Ryan Flannery (1-1) allowed back-to-back singles to Matt West and Cristian Santana. Mike Ortiz then hit an a RBI single to tie it at t 2-2, before De Los Santos won it with a liner off the glove of first baseman Luke Murton.

Charleston went up 1-0 in the first on Murton's RBI double, his fourth in the last three games, off Matt Thompson. Hickory tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom half on a two-out RBI double by Jared Prince off RiverDogs starter Jose Ramirez.

Murton's second homer of the season put Charleston back ahead 2-1 in the third. He finished 3 for 3 with two RBsI and has posted multi-hit efforts in three straight games.

Thompson scattered four hits over five innings in the no-decision with one walk and four strikeouts.

Charleston stranded five of its seven overall runners in the final four frames, including the bases loaded in the sixth.

Ramirez worked a career-high 7.0 innings for Charleston in his no-decision, surrendering the lone run on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts.

The four-game series continues tonight at 7:05. Charleston sends right-hander Kelvin Perez (1-0, 0.66 ERA), whose ERA ranks sixth in the SAL, Hickory will throw righty Neil Ramirez (1-1, 5.40).

DP--Crawdads 1. LOB--RiverDogs 7, Crawdads 7. 2B--Murton, Prince, Santana. HR--Murton. SB--Castro, De Los Santos. CS--Velazquez.

WP--Ramirez.

Time--2:20. Att--1,630.