HICKORY, N.C. (Interstat) — The Hickory Crawdads defeated the Charleston RiverDogs 5-3 on Friday at L.P. Frans Stadium, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Hickory struck for three runs in the first inning, with Hector Osorio scoring on a force out and Marcos Torres later scoring on a sacrifice fly by Josh Springer. Charleston answered with a run in the second on a Nicandro Aybar single and another in the third, but the Crawdads regained the lead in the fifth when Osorio singled home Angel Arredondo. The RiverDogs tied it in the top of the seventh on a force out by Cooper Flemming, but Hickory went ahead for good in the bottom half on Paulino Santana’s RBI double. Kamdyn Perry (4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 6 K) started for Hickory, Michael Trausch (1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 K) earned the win and Luimy Munoz pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save. Aidan Cremarosa (4 2/3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 K) took the loss for Charleston. Flemming hit a two-run homer for the RiverDogs. Attendance was 99 with a time of 2:36. Hickory improved to 23-18, while Charleston fell to 23-20.