HICKORY, N.C. (Interstat) — The Hickory Crawdads defeated the Columbia Fireflies 9-5 on Wednesday afternoon at L.P. Frans Stadium. Paulino Santana hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to break a tie and cap a four-run frame that gave Hickory an 8-5 lead. Braylin Morel doubled and scored in the first, and Curley Martha had two hits and an RBI. Owen Proksch struck out six over two hitless innings, and Wily Villar pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. Hickory outhit Columbia 12-6. Columbia’s Darwin Rodriguez struck out seven over six innings but allowed four earned runs. Sean Gamble went 2 for 3 with an RBI for the Fireflies. The Crawdads improved to 34-29, while Columbia fell to 33-32.