Hass on Baseball

HOPPERS SCORE THREE IN 9TH TO BEAT COLUMBUS

By BILL HASS
Gsohoppers.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – On a steamy night worthy of flowery jerseys, John Raynor provided a tropical punch.

Raynor’s single in the bottom of the ninth drove in the tying and winning runs to push the Greensboro Grasshoppers to a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Catfish Thursday. The game was played before 5,363 fans at First Horizon Park on the Hoppers’ annual Tropical Jersey Night.

The players wore orange jerseys with white flowers that were auctioned off and autographed after the game.

“I loved them,” Raynor said. “It was a very cool design and they were super light so the heat didn’t seem as bad as it did (Wednesday). Everyone was pumped up and looking at themselves in the mirror when we put them on.”

For a long time, the jerseys provided little help. The Hoppers were held to one run on five hits through eight innings by Catfish left-handed Ryan Morse and reliever Brian Baker.

Greensboro looked deflated after leaving the bases loaded without scoring in the eighth inning. But things changed quickly in the ninth with Columbus ahead 3-1. Adam Howard led off against Catfish closer Neal Frontz with a flare single to right field and Chris Hatcher followed with an infield hit.

Guillermo Martinez singled in Howard to make it 3-2. Greg Burns was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Raynor followed by ripping a line drive down the left field line to score Hatcher and Martinez.

One thought on “Hass on Baseball

  1. What a great game on Thurs. night. Yes, the jerseys looked good and went along with the weather. Hot, steamy, and tropical style. I have heard the grandstand area gets wild on thirsty Thurs. I left my seat in sec. 111 to see for myself. It was hot and I wanted a coke(ha ha) anyway. Sure enough it was a pretty wild place. One guy was drinking a beer and eating a can of Spam. I did get a chance to sit with Don Moore and crew in the greensborosports.com box. Very nice group and great view of the ball park. I said to myself the D word(rhymes with bam), This is the best Hoppers game ever. The come from behind win made it even more exciting. Then it was sad, Hoppers win, game over, time to scram. Hope the next game is just as enjoyable. Thank you Don and crew.

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