Final from Sunday afternoon at Greensboro’s First National Bank Field:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 7, Hickory Crawdads 1
WP:Grant Ford(1-0)
LP:Ronny Henriquez(0-1)
Hold:Cristofer Melendez(1)
SV:Bear Bellomy(1)
Hopppers line: 7-7-1 Crawdads line: 1-4-1
Hoppers(3-3)/Crawdads(3-3)
Attendance:2,797
Time of Game/TOG-2:44
HR:GSO Shackleford a three-run homer in the bottom of the First Inning and this was his second HR of the season…
The Greensboro Grasshoppers got outstanding pitching on Sunday afternoon and the home team added some timely hitting to their approach, and it all added up to a 7-1 Hoppers victory over the visiting Hickory Crawdads, on Mother’s Day Sunday, at First National Bank Field…The Sunday Mother’s Day matinee was going the Hoppers way, on Sunday…
Let’s start with the outstanding starting pitching the Grasshoppers received from RHP Carmen Mlodzinski…Mlodzinski, the former South Carolina Gamecock, from Hilton Head, S.C., fell behind early in the count in the first inning, but while he saw the count going 3-2, to two of the batters he faced, he ended up striking out the Crawdads side in the top of the first inning…Mlodzinski went three innings for the Hoppers and allowed No Runs, No Hits, one walk and he struck out four ‘Dads batters, on Mother’s Day…
Mlodzinski was a true bulldog out there today, and he was relieved by Grant Ford and Ford had been roughed up earlier in this series, but today/Sunday he gave the ‘Dads fits, as Ford was running on all cylinders, giving up No runs, No hits, No Walks and he struck out two batters in his two innings of relief work..Ford(1-0) went on to earn the Win in today’s contest…
Through five innings Mlodzinski and Ford combined to give up No Runs, No Hits, just one Walk, and they struck out six Hickory batters….
The next Hopper pitcher coming around on this Sunday would be Cristofer Melendez, and Melendez worked two innings of relief, and he allowed No runs, No hits until the seventh inning and that hit came with two outs, and it gave the Hoppers pitching staff 6 2/3’s innings of scoreless baseball, on Sunday afternoon…Melendez struck out two ‘Dads batters and he left the game with a Hold on the day, and this would be his first Hold of the season…
The Grasshoppers had lost the No-hitter in the seventh inning, but they still had the shutout going headed to the eighth, and that is when Bear Bellomy took over and although Bellomy did give up a run in the eighth inning, that came when the Crawdads’ Pedro Gonzales scored on a SAC fly RBI from Hickory’s catcher, Scott Kapers, and Gonzales had reached on a double to lead off the eighth versus Bellomy, and even with one run in for Hickory, Bellomy locked it down and he finished off the ‘Dads in the eighth, plus he put Hickory away in the ninth inning, giving up only one hit, and that was a single by DH David Garcia…Bellomy’s line read a run on three hits, with one walk and no strikeouts, and he qualified for the save on Sunday….
Hoppers pitching more than impressive on Sunday, with Mlodzinski, Ford, Melendez and Bellomy all doing their part to help the Greensboro Grasshoppers achieve this Mother’s Day matinee victory….
Outstanding pitching on Sunday, and timely hitting as shown by Aaron Shackleford, who drilled a ball down to the right field corner, and the baseball left the yard at the 327 mark in the right corner….Second home run of the season for Shackleford and he drove in Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales with that shot in the bottom of the first inning…With that three-run blast, the Hoppers had all of the runs that they needed to get the win, but they would find more runners coming home later in the game, Shackleford would add a double and another run scored to his busy offensive afternoon…
The Hoppers had to be glad they made the most of that first inning bomb from Shackleford, because after that hit from Shack, the Hoppers had trouble getting the offense back…After Shackleford hit his HR, Hickory pitching, led by their starter Ronny Henriquez, sent down nine Hopper batters in a-row….The Hoppers drew a walk in the fourth inning, but they did not get another hit until the seventh, when Fabricio Macias and Jesus Valdez both collected singles…
Greensboro would not score again until the eighth inning when they added on four runs, with two RBI from Macias, and an RBI from Jared Triolo, both men with singles and driving in a total of three runs…
It was a Grasshoppers kind of day and the Mother’s Day fairy godmothers were kind to the Greensboro team, as the home team Hoppers took the final game of the series from Hickory, by the final score of 7-1….
On the day, Aaron Shackleford had the top offensive numbers going 2-3 at the plate, with two runs scored and 3 RBI…Shackleford homered and he had a double, he drew a walk with an intentional base on balls, plus he left Sunday’s game batting .421…..
Fabricio Macias was 2-3 batting, with one run scored and two RBI…Macias drew one walk…
For Hickory, David Garcia, Jake Guenther, and Ryan Anderson all had one hit each(singles), while Pedro Gonzales had a double for the ‘Dads…Scott Kapers had the only RBI of the game for Hickory, scoring Gonzales, and the lone Hickory Crawdads run came in top of the eighth inning….
Hoppers win again, and now they have Monday as an Off Day, and will be back in action at home on Tuesday, at First National Bank Field, when they begin a six-game home series versus the Rome, Georgia Braves…..First pitch will be on Tuesday night at 6:30pm…..See you then on CLICK HERE ….Be sure to listen to Hoppers baseball when you can….