(Story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
HICKORY, N.C. – Davis Polo fired his third consecutive quality start, and Daniel Brooks retired all nine hitters he faced as the Augusta GreenJackets (22-15, 57-46) did just enough offensively to pick up a 3-2 victory over the Hickory Crawdads (27-11, 61-41) on a dreary Thursday night in Hickory.
For the second straight night, the start of the game was delayed due to rain, and for the second straight night, the GreenJackets scored first after the wait. Battling against dominant starter Evan Siary, the reigning Carolina League Player of the Month, Augusta scraped up a pair of baserunners on a hit by pitch and walk before Juan Mateo lobbed an RBI single to right for the early advantage.
Once again, Davis Polo was simply brilliant in his methodical dismantling of an opponent. Polo saw baserunners in five of his six innings, but navigated calmly while leaning on his sinker and changeup to induce soft contact. Polo picked up five strikeouts to extend his team-leading total to 96, and now has gone six innings or more in three straight games.
Both offenses showed a spark in the sixth, which was the final inning for Polo and the first inning off the mound for Siary. With Augusta facing Ben DeTaeye, who mowed them down and got the win in extras on Tuesday, Nick Montgomery snapped his hitless stretch with a laser beam of a home run to extend the lead to 3-0. In the bottom half, the Crawdads took advantage of an infield single and error to get the two runs back, courtesy of an RBI knock from Kolby Branch that saddled Polo with a pair of unearned tallies.
Manager Brad Stoll went to his bullpen for the first time in the seventh inning, and one pitching change would be all it took to pick up the victory. Daniel Brooks turned in his longest and most dominant outing of the year, carving through the Crawdad order across three innings with seven strikeouts. The seven Ks were a career high for Brooks, and the most in one game by a GreenJackets reliever since Aiven Cabral punched out eight in six innings of long relief back in May.
While not as loud offensively as the last two games, tonight’s tightly contested contest handed the GreenJackets their second straight win as they continue to chase the Crawdads in the Carolina League standings. Augusta now sits 4.5 games back of the Crawdads with a month left in the regular season, with the Jackets having three more chances to pull closer this weekend. Landon Beidelschies will have the ball tomorrow, with a well-rested bullpen behind him to take on Hickory at 7 p.m.
