Lakewood beats Hoppers in bizarre game
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com…
There were four games played within nine innings Sunday at NewBridge Bank Park, but any way you added them up they came out to a Lakewood win over the Hoppers, 15-8.
Game No. 1 was the first five innings, when Lakewood’s Ranfi Casimiro hooked up in a pitchers’ duel with Greensboro’s Jorgan Cavanerio. The BlueClaws scored in the top of the first and led 1-0, with Casimiro holding the Hoppers to one hit.
Game No. 2 was the top of the sixth and top of the seventh. Lakewood sent nine batters to the plate in the sixth and scored three runs, all on a homer by Damek Tomscha. In the seventh, the Claws sent 12 men up and scored seven times, pushing their lead to 11-0.
Game No. 3 was the bottom of the seventh and bottom of the eighth, when the Hoppers got eight runs back, four in each inning, to close within 11-8. Arturo Rodriguez hit a home run, Zach Sullivan had an RBI single and John Norwood a two-run double in the seventh. The Hoppers were aided in the eighth by three Lakewood errors within four batters.
Game No. 4 was the top of the ninth, when a grand slam by Lakewood’s Deivi Grullon off the Hoppers’ Jose Velez put the game out of reach at 15-8.
Of the Hoppers’ five pitchers, only Jeff Kinley escaped without damage, pitching an inning without allowing a run. Cavanerio took the loss.
“He had a tough sixth inning when he couldn’t throw strikes,” said manager Kevin Randel.
Casimiro, a 6-8 right-hander, beat the Hoppers for the third time this season. Randel was disappointed with his team’s at-bats against him in the first five innings, when only Brian Schales touched him for a hit.
Oddly, after sitting in the dugout for more than 20 minutes while Lakewood scored seven runs in the seventh, Casimiro came out for the bottom half of the inning and was tagged for four runs.
After cutting the lead to 11-4, the Hoppers added four more, thanks in no small part to the three BlueClaws errors. With no outs, Victor Delgado came in to retire Felix Castillo and Sullivan. Norwood drew a walk to put runners at the corners, bringing up Justin Twine. Norwood inexplicably tried to steal second and was thrown out by Grullon to end the inning.
“We had the tying run at the plate,” said Randel, shaking his head.
Lakewood finished with some gaudy offensive numbers, including 18 hits. Drew Stankiewicz went 5-for-6 and scored three runs and Grullon had four hits and six RBIs. A damaging blow in the seventh when Emmanuel Marrero, who was 0-for-3, unloaded a bases-loaded triple with two outs off Eduard Quinonez.
NOTES: The homer by Rodriguez was his 19th and pushed his RBI total to 66, both team highs … Every Lakewood player had a hit and eight of the nine batters scored … The BlueClaws are now 15-7 vs. the Hoppers this season … The series continues Monday night at 7 o’clock with Gabriel Castellanos starting for Greensboro.