Seymour helps Hoppers stay on hot streak
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com
Anfernee Seymour likes being a catalyst for the Hoppers.
That’s just what he was Thursday night, running the bases with abandon and helping the Hoppers beat the Hagerstown Suns 4-2 to open a four-game series at NewBridge Bank Park.
Hagerstown came into the game with a record of 26-12, best in the South Atlantic League, and a six-game winning streak. Now the Hoppers are officially the SAL’s hottest team with four wins in a row.
“We’re playing with a little more confidence right now,” said manager Kevin Randel. “Sometimes when you play a good team you play up to their level of competition.”
The Hoppers are still only 16-24, but they were dawdling at 12-24 before they swept Kannapolis and took game one from the Suns. Seymour said the players understand this is a developmental league, but at the same time their competitive natures take over.
“We just said ‘we’re tired of losing and let’s pick things up,’” he said.
In the early going, Seymour struggled at the plate but he’s beginning to come around. As the leadoff hitter, he understands his job is to get on base and make things happen.
“To be honest, it was tough on me,” he said. “I was feeling the pressure when I started slowly. But Kevin and the coaches and my teammates kept me going. Now I’m more relaxed out there. I’m bunting more, seeing more pitches. I was limiting myself and now I’m playing my game.
“I picture myself as a guy who gets on base and gets the team going. When I can do that, it’s going to be a good night.”
With the Hoppers trailing 2-1 in the third inning, Seymour led off with a single, stole second base on a pitchout and scored on a throwing error by the pitcher to tie the game. A sacrifice fly by Angel Reyes drove in the go-ahead run later in the inning.
“I didn’t even know it was a pitchout,” Seymour said. “I knew their pitcher was fast to the plate and I wanted to get a running start, so I just put my head down and ran.”
That 3-2 score held until the seventh. With Seymour on first after a fielder’s choice, Stone Garrett ripped a double into the left field corner. Third base coach Jose Ceballos never hesitated to wave the ultra-quick Seymour home and he scored standing up for an insurance run.
“I turned it on to score from first,” Seymour said. “Those add-on runs can help our pitchers late in a game.”
Seymour also made an outstanding defensive play at shortstop, backhanding a ball in the outfield grass and firing a one-hopper to first baseman Josh Naylor to beat the runner.
“I practice that,” he said of the throw. “If I can give Josh a low one-hop throw it’s easier for him to handle. I don’t want to take a chance that it will sail.”
There’s still plenty of work for Seymour to do. He’s hitting just .218, but when he gets on base the other team pays him plenty of attention.
“He’s the heartbeat of this team,” Randel said. “He creates havoc on the bases.”
The Hoppers backed their pitchers with three excellent defensive plays. In addition to Seymour’s, Zach Sullivan went higher than the fence in left field to pull down a potential extra-base hit and catcher Roy Morales dived to pull in a bunted foul popup.
Starter Gabriel Castellanos had an adventurous outing. He gave up runs in the first and second innings, worked out of jams in the third and fourth and retired the side in order in the fifth en route to earning his second win.
“It never hurts to be slippery,” said pitching coach Brendan Sagara, who rejoined the team in Kannapolis after missing two weeks because of the death of his father. “It used to be in those situations that (Castellanos) would try to do too much. Now he takes it a pitch at a time.”
Beh Holmes followed with three scoreless innings and C.J. Robinson closed out the ninth for his seventh save in seven chances.
NOTES: The teams play the second game of the series at 7 p.m. Friday with Steven Farnworth starting for the Hoppers … Sullivan had three hits and an RBI … Ceballos has coached the last seven games at third base and is 5-2 in that stretch. Randel said that after a loss in Delmarva he decided to shake things up so he put himself in the dugout and Ceballos, who normally coaches first, at third. The change isn’t permanent, but Randel said he’ll stay with it as long as the team stays loose and plays well … The Suns have the sons of three former major-leaguers on their roster — first baseman Ryan Ripken (son of Cal Ripken), infielder Cody Dent (son of Bucky Dent) and relief pitcher Mariano Rivera III (son of the all-time saves leader Mariano Rivera, who played for the Greensboro Hornets in 1991 and 1993).