Bill Hass on Baseball:Hoppers win to keep pressure on Suns

Hoppers win to keep pressure on Suns

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

This is getting interesting.

The Hoppers kept the pressure on Hagerstown Wednesday night with a 7-2 win at West Virginia. The Suns, meanwhile, were thumped by Lakewood, 10-2, when the BlueClaws broke things open with seven runs in the eighth inning.

So there’s the situation. Hagerstown (43-23) leads the Northern Division by three games over Greensboro (40-26) with four games remaining in the first half. The elimination number — any combination of Suns wins and Hoppers losses — remains at two for the Hoppers.

Both teams face new opponents for their final series. The Hoppers move on to Kannapolis while Hagerstown returns home to face Greenville. Matt Milroy will start Thursday night’s game for the Hoppers.

Wednesday’s game marked the sixth straight win for Greensboro and a sweep of the series against the Power. The Hoppers have now won 17 of their last 22 games. Jarlin Garcia pitched seven innings and picked up his sixth win, scattering nine hits while striking out five and allowing two runs. Miguel del Pozo and Josh Easley each pitched a scoreless inning.

Avery Romero rapped his fourth homer of the season and J.T. Riddle and Chad Wallach each drove in two runs. Juan Avila had two hits and scored twice. The Hoppers led throughout but West Virginia drew within 4-2 in the seventh inning. Greensboro responded with two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth. A pair of Power errors led to three unearned runs.