Two for Tuesday/Hoppers end losing skid

There will be two big baseball games involving local teams tonight as both Southeast and Northwest Guilford take to the road for round number four of the NCHSAA playoffs.

SEG(20-5) will be at Anson County(23-4) in the 3-A action with the Falcons set to send Cam Cockman to the hill.  The News and Record www.news-record.com has a story on SEG in today’s edition. 

NWG(24-4) travels to Welcome to face off with the Black Knights of North Davidson(22-7).  We look for NWG to have their sophomore sensation Logan Self on the mound.

We mentioned several SEG players here last week like Moyer, Medley, Areno, Cockman, Hackett, Venable, Webb, Craven,  and Childress, plus add catcher Adam Stone and utility infielder Pat Nesbitt to that list.

NWG continues to impress with Jake Rierson, John Neese, Alex Phetteplace, Self, Brandon McKinnney, Hunter Bennett, Seth Hanner, and others getting the job done.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers broke up their five-game losing streak on Monday night with a 6-5 ten inning win over the Asheville Tourists.  The Hoppers were down early 2-0 but they battled back in the bottom of the third and went up 5-2 on the strength of Logan Morrison’s three-run homer.  The Hoppers hit for the cycle as a team in the 3rd with a single by Greg Burns, a double by Chris Coghlan, a triple by John Raynor, and the home-run by Morrison.

The Hoppers watched on as the Tourists tagged on three runs in the top of the fourth to tie the game at five and then Greensboro left the winning run on at second in the 7th and 8th innings before hanging on to close out the victory in the 10th.  Jacob(Jake) Blackwood’s walk-off homer with one out proved to be the game-winner for the Hoppers and the bullpen was maxed out as Don Czyz went three innings to get credit for the win.

The Hoppers used Rodolfo Encarnacion, Andy Jackson, Chris Leroux, and Czyz as the bullpen pitching staff-by-committee and it worked to help the Hoppers finally get back in the win column.  The Grasshoppers are now 26-18 with the victory and face Asheville(29-14) again tonight at First Horizon Park.

It looks like the Greensboro Revolution have fallen on some very hard times.  Check out the front page of today’s N&R sports section for full details.  I saw this coming but didn’t think it would get this bad, this quick.