Hoppers win a wild one over Legends, 7-5
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com
Strange things can happen with a ball park full of schoolkids.
The Hoppers provided all kinds of drama for the young fans Tuesday afternoon, resulting in a 7-5 win. They stuffed all seven runs into the bottom of the fifth inning.
Full confession — I wasn’t there to see it. But here’s how the inning was recapped.
With the Hoppers trailing 4-0, Aaron Blanton and Justin Twine opened the fifth inning with singles. After Korey Dunbar struck out, Zach Sullivan doubled to score Blanton. Anfernee Seymour bunted for a base hit but Twine held at third. Stone Garrett then fanned for the second out.
Then the craziness began. Josh Naylor’s ground ball to shortstop Marten Gasparini was booted for an error. Twine scored, Sullivan moved to third, Seymour advanced to second and Naylor was safe at first. Instead of being out of the inning with a 4-1 lead, the Legends faced three Hoppers on base with two outs and their lead cut to 4-2.
Angel Reyes singled in Sullivan and Seymour to tie the game, with Naylor advancing to third. With Isael Soto batting, the 6-foot, 220-pound Naylor stole home to put the Hoppers ahead 5-4. Soto singled to keep things going. After a pitching change, Blanton doubled in two runs to make it 7-4. Twine grounded out to end an inning in which 12 Hoppers went to the plate.
Lexington picked up a run in the top of the eighth to shave the lead to 7-5. In the ninth, Scott Squier relieved C.J. Robinson and promptly got into a heap of trouble, giving p a single, a walk and another single to the first three batters to load the bases.
But Squier regrouped and got Lexington’s Ben Johnson to strike out swinging. Then he induced Xavier Fernandez to hit a ground ball to second base. Twine field it, flipped to Rony Cabrera for one out and Cabrera’s relay to Naylor completed the double play and ended the game.
Ben Holmes, who relieved starter Jordan Holloway in the third inning, pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief and picked up his fourth win without a loss.
The Hoppers will take Wednesday off, then hit the road for four games at Delmarva and three at Kannapolis. They return to NewBridge Bank Park on Thursday, May 19, for a homestand against Hagerstown and Delmarva.