Hickory In A Rout

The Hickory Hawks scored 16 runs on 16 hits in a 16-1 romp over the top seed Maury Commodores. University of Virginia recruit Christian Lowry belted two home runs while driving in six runs to lead the hit parade. He finished 4 of 5 from the plate.

The Hawks scored a run in each of the first five innings with most of the scoring coming with two outs. Stephen Polansky got things started with a 2-out double that scored two runs in the first. Both runs were unearned. Polansky also added a sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning. Lowry smashed a 2-out, 3-run homerun over the left field fence to give Hickory a 5-0 lead. It was the second career 2-homer game for Lowry who also performed the trick as a freshman.

"I got my foot down on it and read it well," Lowey said about the first homerun. "The last couple of games we've been focusing on shortening up our swings and getting the RBI. It worked for us tonight."

Freshman Mikey Polansky delivered with 2-outs drilling a 2-run homerun in the 4th to increase the lead to 10-0. Mikey finished the day with two extra base hits.

"That's something we've been talking about all year," Hickory head coach Hank Kraft said about the 2-out hits. "That depresses the other team when you do that and we were able to get some key hits tonight."

Six hits and two walks produced five more runs including a 2-run single by Lowry. The final blow was a leadoff homerun by Lowry in the seventh. The 10-run mercy rule was not in play at the Regionals.

Hickory used several pitchers including University of Virginia recruit Connor Eason who threw three shutout innings. Maury was limited to only one run and six hits. Jeff Adams drove in the Commodores only run with an RBI single in the 5th inning. Adams finished 2 of 4 from the plate.