SALEM, Va. (Interstat) — Jesus Lafalaise pitched six strong innings and the Hickory Crawdads used a balanced attack to defeat the Salem RidgeYaks 7-3 on Thursday at Carilion Clinic Field.

Lafalaise allowed two earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts to improve to 1-4. Frank Martinez earned the save with three innings of relief, striking out four.

Marcos Torres hit a two-run homer in the second inning, his seventh of the season, to put Hickory ahead. Hector Osorio also homered and drove in a run, while Esteban Mejia and Angel Arredondo each had two hits and an RBI. The Crawdads pounded out 11 hits total.

Salem grabbed an early lead on Andrews Opata’s RBI single in the first, but Hickory answered with two runs in the second and two more in the third. The RidgeYaks got within 5-3 after five innings, but the Crawdads added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth.

Jason Gilman took the loss in his first decision of the season. Frederik Jimenez homered for Salem, which had seven hits. Attendance was 2,267. Hickory improved to 27-19, while Salem fell to 21-27.