Bill Hass on Baseball:Hoppers stymied by Shorebirds pitching

Hoppers stymied by Shorebirds pitching
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com…..

There are going to be some long nights with a young team, and Thursday was one of them.

Delmarva beat the Hoppers 5–2 in a game that seemed much more lopsided, mostly because the Shorebirds out-hit Greensboro 13–3. Three Hoppers pitchers actually limited the damage, shutting out the Birds in seven innings and stranding 10 runners.

It was Delmarva’s pitching that held the upper hand. It was so dominant that the Hoppers had the statistical oddity of leaving no runners on base. They had just three baserunners all night. Two batters who singled were promptly wiped out on double plays. Chris Torres reached on a two-out error in the eighth inning and scored on a homer by Isael Soto.

Other than that, there was nothing. Of the nine Hoppers batters, seven of them were between 17 and 20 years old, one was 21 and the oldest was 23.

For Soto, who is 21, it was his 11th homer of the season and raised his team-leading RBI total to 60.

“He continues his wonderful second half of the season,” said manager Todd Pratt. “He’s probably our player of the year.”

Trevor Rogers will start the second game of the series Friday at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Soto, a left-handed hitter, swatted his homer off southpaw Cameron Ming … Delmarva starter Brenan Hanifee retired the first 12 hitters he faced before Will Banfield singled to lead off the fifth inning … Eight Delmarva batters had hits, with five of them getting two apiece … Michael Mertz had five strikeouts in two innings of relief for the Hoppers.