Bill Hass on Grasshoppers Baseball:Too much to overcome

from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball, at www.gsohoppers.com:

Too much to overcome

The Hoppers put themselves in a hole Saturday night and almost dug out.

But not quite.

Greensboro fell to Delmarva 7-6 on a night when pitchers Austin Brice and Jake Esch issued seven walks and the defense committed four errors.

The offense staked Brice to a 4-0 lead and he pitched no-hit ball for 4 1/3 innings. But he was wild all night, walking five batters, and couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning. when Delmarva touched him for three runs, aided by two Hoppers errors.

Esch, a right-hander just added to the roster from Jamestown (Dejai Oliver was sent to Jupiter to create room), came on and got the final out in the fifth on a strikeout to preserve the 4-3 lead. He put up a scoreless sixth but had a rough seventh inning when the Shorebirds scored four times to take the lead. Esch contributed to the troubles with a throwing error, his second of the night, and a wild pitch, also his second.

The Hoppers got one run back in the seventh on a solo home run by Austin Barnes and another in the eighth on an RBI groundout by Wilfredo Gimenez. But they couldn’t score in the ninth, as Delmarva shortstop Mychal Givens made a nice stop behind second base and threw out Josh Adams to end the game.

Esch, who took the loss, shut out the Shorebirds in the eighth and ninth innings.

Barnes had two hits, two RBIs and scored twice for the Hoppers. Aaron Senne cracked a two-run homer and Matt Smith and Gimenez had two hits apiece.

The series continues at 4 p.m. today with Scott Lyman pitched for the Hoppers.