Hickory, NC – Moises Morales put together a scintillating performance on the bump, and the Crawdads pushed three runs across in the fifth to claim a 3-0 win over Delmarva on Friday night at LP Frans Stadium.
Morales provided quite a follow-up to Evan Siary's quality start with one of his own. In six scoreless frames, the native of Venezuela scattered five hits, struck out five Shorebirds and walked nobody.
Morales' command was sharp, throwing 52 of his 69 pitches for strikes, piling up a 76.5 percent strike rate.
His last two starts for the Crawdads have produced 13 innings, allowing two runs on 10 hits and zero free passes.
Jake Barbee, making his 'Dads debut, tossed three scoreless frames for his first save of the season.
Barbee continued the strike-throwing theme, as the Charlotte native surrendered no walks while punching out a pair of batters.
Despite that mound mastery, the Crawdads still had to score a few runs to separate themselves from Delmarva.
They did so with opportunistic hitting and a splash of little ball.
Josh Owens reached on a bunt single to lead off the stanza against Shorebirds reliever Brandon Downer.
Sebastian Baquera followed the bunt single with one of his own, scoring Owens, as Delmarva committed a pair of errors on the play to send Baquera to third and give Hickory (69-46, 35-16) a 1-0 lead.
Marco Argudin served a single to right field, scoring Baquera to push Hickory ahead 2-0.
Pablo Guerrero closed out the frame with a run-scoring double over the third-base bag to give the Crawdads their final margin on Friday night.
Morales (9-2) claimed his ninth win of the year, keeping him at the top of the Carolina League's winningest pitchers.
Downer was tagged with the loss, falling to 1-1 for Delmarva (42-76, 19-33).
The two clubs will face off on Saturday night, as the Crawdads need a win to claim the six-game series. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.