The Greensboro Grasshoppers got a No-hit pitching effort from their starting pitcher, Michael Burrows, and from his reliever Trey McGough, but when the Hoppers turned to the back end of their bullpen, the game turned swiftly, and the Hickory Crawdads pounced on the Hoppers and the ‘Dads took the Hoppers to the proverbial woodshed, and by game’s end, Hickory walked out of First National Bank Field on Friday night, with an 8-4 Crawdads victory….
Wow, how the worm can turn….The Hoppers were up 4-0 at the end of six innings, and Greensboro was getting their best pitching effort of the young season….Grasshoppers starting pitcher Michael Burrows went four innings and struck out 8 of the 12 batters he faced….The only base runner that Burrows allowed came from an error by the Hoppers shortstop Liover Peguero…Four innings of No-hit ball from Burrows, in what was the best outing by any Hopper pitcher this young season….Burrows really had it going on, and nothing was going on that scoreboard for Hickory, I mean it was all zeros for the Hickory Crawdads…Trey McGough came on for Burrows after 4 innings, and McGough pretty much picked up the pace, and carried on from right where Burrows left off….
McGough goes two innings and gave up no runs on no hits, he walked one Dad batter and struck out one Crawdad….Again, Burrows throws four innings, gives up NO runs, NO hits, walks none, and strikes out eight HIC batters….
Austin Roberts, the new Greensboro Grasshoppers pitcher in the seventh inning, got the first Crawdad he faced and that gave the Hoppers 6 1/3 innings of No-hit ball for the night, but then the wheels came off of the wagon…Roberts walked Hickory’s Frainyer Chavez to begin the inning, then Roberts struck out Justin Foscue, but after that the wagon was running down the road unattended…
Chavez was on with the walk, then Roberts walks Blaine Crim too, so with two on and one gone, Hickory’s Jake Guenther came up to the plate and he sent a ball over the right field wall, that landed somewhere in downtown Greensboro proper…A three-run homer from Guenther and Hickory has made it a 4-3 Hoppers’ lead, and the Hoppers’ No-hitter is LONG GONE….Roberts got through the 7th inning, but when came back out for the 8th frame, he gave up two more Crawdad runs, and both of those ‘Dads had reached base with walks….Scott Kapers scored for HIC to tie the game at 4-4, and then Isaias Quiroz crossed the plate, and Hickory took a lead that they would never give back….
Your’e now looking at a 5-4 Hickory lead, and the Crawdads went on to score a total of 8 unanswered runs, after the Hoppers had led the game early, 4-0…In fact the Hoppers led the game early and led the middle of the game too…The Hickory Crawdads’ uprising came in the 7th inning, and they went on to win this game, 8-4….Hickory ended up with a three-run homer, a two-run homer and a solo homer, and all of that offense came over the last three innings of the game….
To say add some insult injury, Hickory was scoring runs in the 7th-9th innings, but Hickory was not giving up any runs during that stretch….And to make matters worse, Hickory brought in a position player, Ryan Anderson(LF) to pitch the last two innings of the contest….
Anderson comes in and he completely shut down the Grasshoppers…It looked like he was throwing a knuckle curve ball…There was very little speed/velocity at all on his pitches, but Anderson had the Greensboro Grasshoppers right where he wanted them…The Hoppers were swinging away at the Anderson offerings, and the Hoppers were coming up empty…In the bottom of the 8th inning Anderson got the Hoppers three-up, three-down, on three pop-ups….In the 9th inning the Hoppers Francisco Acuna reached on an error, and then Matthew Frazier drew a walk, but the game came to end, when the Hoppers catcher Grant Koch lifted a popup that rose up behind home plate, and it was hauled in by the ‘Dads catcher Isaias Quiroz to end the game….
A great effort by the Hoppers starting pitcher Michael Burrows goes for naught, the Hoppers take an early 2-0 lead and move ahead 4-0 in the sixth inning, but then Hickory goes ‘Crawdad Crazy’, as the ‘Dads score those 8 unanswered runs, and then Hickory pours salt into the Grasshoppers wounds, when in comes this junk ball pitcher Ryan Anderson to shut down the Hoppers offense completely, over the last two innings of the game…
Not a good way to go out tonight…They sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” in the middle of the 7th inning, and by the 7th inning on Friday night, the Greensboro Grasshoppers were out of this game….
This one slips away, but it is time to put on those short-term memory caps and get ready for Saturday night….LHP Omar Cruz scheduled to go for the Hoppers on Saturday, and the Crawdads will counter with their lefty, Avery Weems…
Final Tallies from Friday night..
Hickory Crawdads 8, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
WP:Triston Polley(2-0)
LP:Austin Roberts(0-1)
GSO(2-2)/HIC(2-2)
HIC line:8-4-1 GSO line:4-5-1
Attendance:2,593
TOG/Time of Game-3:14
HR’s HIC Guenther 3-run homer…Foscue 2-run homer…Enright solo homer….
GSO Shackleford 2-run homer…..
Hickory got their 8 runs on just four hits, with the HR’s accounting for 6 of their 8 runs scored…Eight different players scored a run for Hickory on Friday night…For Greensboro, Aaron Shackleford goes 2-4 with a HR and 3 RBI…..Shackleford with two of the Hoppers’ five hits…
That’s it for us tonight, and I thought we might be set to see a staff No-hitter on Friday, but I guess the Hoppers are saving that for Saturday night…..Be sure to listen to the Hoppers games at this link….CLICK HERE