Bill Hass on Baseball:Hoppers, Suns both keep winning

+++++Additional note from Bill Hass:Hickory and Delmarva are both now eliminated.+++++

Hoppers, Suns both keep winning

from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com:

The Hoppers keep doing what they need to do, but so does Hagerstown.

Greensboro beat West Virginia 5-2 Tuesday night but remained four games behind the Suns, who topped Lakewood 2-0.

In the Northern Division standings, Hagerstown is 43-22 and Greensboro is 39-26. There are five games left in the first half, so any combination of two Suns wins or Hoppers losses clinches the first half for Hagerstown. Both teams continue their series with their current opponents with 7 p.m. games Wednesday.

The Hoppers won their fifth straight game and 16th in their last 21 by beating the Power. Domingo German pitched five innings and allowed two runs to pick up his sixth win of the season. Cody Crabaugh followed with two scoreless innings and Esmerling de la Rosa shut out the Power in the eighth.

In the ninth, de la Rosa got the first out and the game was delayed by rain, then called after a 30-minute delay. De la Rosa was credited with a save.

The Hoppers scored four times in the top of the fifth inning, getting an RBI single from Justin Bohn, a two -run single from Felix Munoz and an RBI single from Chad Wallach. Munoz also had a sacrifice fly in the first inning, giving him three RBIs in the game.

Jarlin Garcia is the scheduled starter for the Hoppers Wednesday.