Power surges past Hoppers
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com
West Virginia continued its second-half mastery of the Hoppers Thursday night with an 11-1 win.
It was the seventh straight win for the Power over Greensboro in the second half of the SAL season, and eighth straight going back to the first half.
It was close for six innings, with the Power leading 2-1. But West Virginia scored nine runs off the Hoppers bullpen, tattooing Jose Velez for six runs in the ninth.
Starter Kyle Kolek lost his fourth straight game but pitched pretty well. He went five innings, giving up two runs, one unearned, on three hits with three strikeouts. He also walked three and hit a batter. After giving up single runs in the first and second, he settled down for three shutout innings, getting two inning-ending double plays.
The offense continued to struggle, managing only six hits. Arturo Rodriguez and Brian Schales had two apiece and Schales had the only RBI. The Hoppers have scored just 38 runs in 15 games in the second half.
NOTES: The Power had two doubles, two triples and a homer among its 10 hits … There were five hit batters in the game, three by Hoppers pitchers … The series continues Friday with Luis Castillo starting for Greensboro.