Bill Hass on Baseball:Stadium sets all-time attendance record

Stadium sets all-time attendance record

July 4 continues to bring out Greensboro’s fans in droves to the ball park.

A crowd of 10,312 jammed into NewBridge Bank Park Saturday night, setting a single-game record in the 11-season history of the stadium.

That broke the old mark of 10,260, set on July 4 of 2006, the stadium’s second year. It also pushed the figure of 10,229, drawn for the North Carolina-NC State game in the ACC Tournament in 2012, into third place in the stadium’s history.

It’s unusual for an attendance record to be broken well after a stadium has been established and it’s no longer a novelty.

“This is fabulous, exciting,” said Hoppers president Donald Moore. “We must be doing something right after more than 800 games here. This is gratifying, and I hope they keep coming.”

Most of the crowd, which was standing room only, chowed down on hot dogs and other items, consumed beer and other beverages and persevered through a game that lasted more than three hours. The Hoppers absorbed an 11-2 thumping from Hickory, but folks stuck around to watch the post-game fireworks extravaganza, always a specialty on July 4.

NOTES: Arturo Rodriguez hit his seventh homer of the season and also singled for the Hoppers … Rony Cabrera had two hits and the other RBI … Austen Smith added two hits … Starter Tyler Kolek lasted just four innings and his record dropped to 4-5 … Reliever Sam Alvis pitched three innings without allowing a hit … Hickory’s Luke Tendler, who played at A&T, had three hits, drove in two runs and scored twice … Jose Trevino added three hits, including a homer, for the Crawdads ,,, Hickory scored four runs in the fourth and five more in the eighth … Luis Castillo will start Sunday’s 4 p.m. game for Greensboro.