Hickory, NC - The Hickory Crawdads ended up on the wrong end of a lopsided loss Saturday night, as the 'Dads were shutout by the visiting West Virginia Power in a 9-0 defeat in front of a season-high crowd of 5,323 fans at L.P. Frans Stadium.

What started off as a battle between two of the best pitching staffs in the league deteriorated over the final two innings, as the Crawdads and Power were scoreless over the first four frames while West Virginia held a 3-0 lead from the 5th through the 7th before pulling away with 3 runs in both the 8th and 9th.

Texas Rangers 2015 1st round draft pick Dillon Tate made his Hickory debut with a perfect inning to start the game, while All-Star teammate Brett Martin followed with shutout innings in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th before allowing a 2-out, 3-run home run to Jordan Luplow in the 5th to break up the scoreless tie and put the Power ahead 3-0.

Martin settled down with a scoreless 6th while reliever Shane McCain came out of the bullpen with a shutdown 7th, but West Virginia stretched their lead with a solo homer by Luplow, an RBI triple from Michael Suchy, and an RBI single by Elvis Escobar in the 8th to double their advantage to 6-0. The Power finished things off with three more tallies in the 9th against McCain and Chris Dula to end the game with the 9-0 score.

Offensively, the Crawdads bats were held at bay by Power starter Stephen Tarpley who tied a career-high with 8 shutout innings pitched on three hits and two strikeouts. West Virginia reliever Edgar Santana finished off the contest with a scoreless inning in the 9th. Tarpley (10-2) earned the win for his performance, while Martin (4-6) took the loss for the 'Dads with three runs allowed on six hits, four walks, and three strikeouts over 5 innings pitched.

Juremi Profar (1-4), Edwin Garcia (1-4) and Jose Trevino (1-3) all finished with one hit for the Hickory offense.

The Crawdads (71-45/27-21) and Power (70-47/33-15) will play the rubber match of their 3-game series Sunday night, with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 pm.

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