Here comes the clunker

Lexinton Deal Hoppers A 9-1 Set Back
from www.gsohoppers.com
GREENSBORO, N.C. – After a long streak of good baseball, the Greensboro Grasshoppers turned in a clunker Friday night.

The Lexington Legends drubbed the Hoppers 9-1 before a crowd of 7,381 at First Horizon Park. Greensboro had won five straight, nine of 11 and 23 of 33 before Friday.

“That was an all-around bad game,” said Hoppers manager Edwin Rodriguez. “We got away from our game plan of usually seeing a lot of pitches. Tonight we were swinging on the first or second pitch.”

The Hoppers didn’t pitch well, giving up 12 hits, and committed five errors. The only good thing that came out of the game was that the Hoppers remained in second place in the Northern Division because Lakewood and Delmarva both lost. First-place Hickory was trailing late in its game. A win by Hickory would leave the Hoppers 4½ games behind with nine to play. A Crawdads loss would leave Greensboro trailing by 3½. Either way, Greensboro needs to start a new winning streak. .

“That’s the beauty of baseball,” Rodriguez said. “Tomorrow we start 0-0.”*****Bill Hass on Baseball, check him out each day at www.gsohoppers.com*****