Sullivan drives in four as Hoppers rally twice
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com
Maybe it was the rainy weather. Or maybe the Hoppers were just way overdue.
Greensboro broke through a season’s worth of offensive frustration Friday night, rallying from two big deficits to beat Lakewood 10-9 at NewBridge Bank Park. The second part of the game was played in a steady rain that never got hard enough for an interruption.
Going into the game, the Hoppers’ season highs were seven runs and nine hits. On Friday, they pounded out 15 hits to go with their 10 runs. What was more impressive was the way they did it, coming back from 6-1 down and again from 9-5.
“We could easily have folded, just cashed it in,” said manager Kevin Randel. “But guys were having good at-bats and they were really pulling for each other.”
The trick now is to keep the momentum going and start stringing together some wins. The Hoppers are 6-10 (just 2-7 at home), and even with 15 hits their team batting average sits at .197. Center fielder Zach Sullivan, who drove in four runs, believes this game is a sign of things to come.
“It was really frustrating,” he said of the offensive funk, “but it was a matter of time until we broke out. We had quality at-bats tonight, we’ve been learning from our mistakes and we’ll keep the offense going.”
Sullivan looks like a different player from last year, and with good reason. He spent the off-season following the Miami Marlins’ plan and wound up adding 17 pounds to his frame without losing any of his speed. The increased power is obvious.
In 2015, only 10 of Sullivan’s 71 hits were for extra bases — seven doubles and three triples but no homers. In the first 16 games of 2016, seven of his 11 hits have been for extra bases. His three-run homer in the seventh inning tied Friday’s game 9-9. It was his first pro homer since the two he hit in 2014 in the Gulf Coast League.
“I’ve been getting on my front foot,” he said, “so in early work today I wanted to make sure I stayed back and saw the ball in the middle of the plate. I got under that pitch a little and I wasn’t sure it was going out until I rounded first and saw the outfielder looking up. It’s a great feeling, especially in a game like this.”
Randel said Sullivan is more confident and “has a different look in his eyes. He goes up there ready to hit.”
He did that early on, driving a deep sacrifice fly to score the fourth run of a rally in the fifth inning that cut Lakewood’s 6-1 lead to 6-5. That was the ultimate small-ball rally. The Hoppers loaded the bases and scored on a hit by pitch, an infield out, an infield hit and Sullivan’s sacrifice fly.
After Sullivan’s three-run homer tied the game 9-9 in the seventh, Randel played small ball again in the bottom of the eighth. Josh Naylor led off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice by Angel Reyes. With the BlueClaws’ infield in, Isael Soto slashed a single past the shortstop to score Naylor with the go-ahead run.
There was a lot for Randel to like about the offense. Leadoff hitter Anfernee Seymour had three hits and walk. Naylor had a pair of doubles. Soto, just off the disabled list, had a triple, single and scored twice. Kyle Barrett added two more hits.
“Seymour is huge for our team,” Randel said. “He causes chaos when he’s on the bases.”
The Hoppers’ pitching was shaky in the first six innings. Starter Justin Jacome surrendered three home runs and reliever L.J. Brewster was tagged for three runs in one inning. But Ben Holmes put zeroes on the board in the seventh and eighth innings and C.J. Robinson struck out the side in the ninth to earn his third save.
“Those two guys are as good as anyone we have for pitchability,” said pitching coach Brendan Sagara. “We try to get to them at the back end of our bullpen.
“C.J. has relaxed into the closer’s role. He’s been a middle relief guy and we want to see him pitch important innings. We think he’s turned that corner.”
Perhaps the most important out of the night came in the eighth inning. Josh Tobias, the Greensboro native who already had three hits and four RBIs, smashed a hard one-hopper to Naylor at first base. Naylor fumbled it momentarily but recovered and made the putout
Tobias, a switch hitter, finished 3-for-5 for the night. Batting right-handed against Jacome, he hit a two-run homer to right field. Hitting lefty against Brewster, he laced a two-run double down the third-base line. In six games against the Hoppers this season, Tobias is 13-for-23 with 11 RBIs and five runs scored.
The series continues Saturday at 7 p.m. with Cody Poteet on the mound for the Hoppers. N.C. State and N.C. A&T will play a game starting at 1 p.m.