Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball:Hoppers share first place again

Hoppers share first place again
from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball at www.gsohoppers.com

KANNAPOLIS- It was a good night for the Hoppers Tuesday as they moved back into a first-place tie in the Northern Division of the SAL.

Greensboro beat Kannapolis 5–2 and Hickory lost to Delmarva 1–0 in 14 innings. The teams are tied for first, with the Hoppers holding the edge in percentage. Greensboro is at .571 (32–24) while Hickory is at .569 (33–25).

Hagerstown, which lost to Lakewood, dropped to three games behind. West Virginia’s game against Charleston was postponed by rain, so the Power is two-and-a-half games back.

Twelve games remain in the regular season. Wednesday night, the Hoppers are at Kannapolis, Hickory is at Delmarva, Hagerstown hosts Lakewood and West Virginia plays a doubleheader against Charleston.

Tuesday night, the Hoppers scored single runs in five different innings to back up solid pitching. Ethan Clark went six innings to earn the win, allowing one run on six hits with five strikeouts. Michael Mertz pitched two scoreless innings, striking out four, and Evan Beal pitched the ninth, allowing a run.

Aaron Knapp went 3-for-4 and scored twice to lead the offense. Brian Miller had two hits, drove in a run, scored once and stole a base. Luis Pintor had two hits, an RBI and a stolen base. Micah Brown had an RBI and Trenton Hill added a sacrifice fly.

Defensively, right fielder Jhonny Santos threw out a Kannapolis runner at the plate in the third inning.

Michael King is the Hoppers’ scheduled starter for Wednesday’s game.