SALEM, Va. (Interstat) — The Hickory Crawdads scored five runs in the eighth inning to pull away from the Salem RidgeYaks 9-3 on Friday night at Carilion Clinic Field.

Hickory took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a sacrifice fly, then added three runs in the fifth. Salem answered with a run in the fourth and two in the fifth to cut the margin to 4-3. The Crawdads broke the game open in the eighth, scoring five times on a sacrifice fly, a single, another sacrifice fly and a walk.

Michael Trausch earned the win, improving to 4-1, allowing three runs over six innings. Jose Bello took the loss, falling to 0-2, after giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings.

D’Angelo Ortiz went 2-for-4 for Salem. Hickory outhit the RidgeYaks 6-7.

Attendance was 5,438, and the game lasted 2 hours, 50 minutes. Hickory improved to 28-19, while Salem dropped to 21-28.