More details on this game coming your way later on tonight, but for now, it was a Walk-Off home run off of the bat of the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ LoLo Sanchez, in the bottom of the ninth inning, that gave the Hoppers their 7-6 walk-off win on Sunday afternoon, at First National Bank Field…
We really should give that young man a “Key to the City”, since he ‘saved the Gate City on Sunday’….
The Hoppers jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the Dash on Sunday, but could not hold the lead, and the Hoppers fell behind 6-5, going to the bottom of the ninth inning….
I have probably seen more game than anyone in the history of the downtown stadium, but this had to be one of the Top Ten Greatest Endings that I have ever witnessed…I have seen big hits from Giancarlo/Mike Stanton, Christian Yelich, J.T. Resko, Gabby Sanchez, J.T. Realmuto, Logan Morrison, Marcell Ozuna, Mark Canha, and others over the past 16 seasons, but the Walk-Off home run from LoLo Sanchez today, was one of the best-ever endings at the downtown stadium….
Today, the Hoppers were up 5-0, then they saw the Dash cut the lead to 5-1 going in the top of the seventh inning, and then the Dash plated 5 big runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning…
Oliver Garcia was on the hill for the Hoppers in the last part of the ninth inning, and it looked like the Hoppers’ right-handed pitcher was running out of gas….Garcia come on board for Hoppers’ reliever Grant Ford, who had to leave the game when his tank landed on “E”/empty, but Garcia had enough fuel left to finally get the Dash out, and then came the LoLo Sanchez heroics in the bottom of the ninth inning….
There was a lead-off Double from the Grasshoppers’ Matt Frazier, then there was a ground-out to shortstop from Greensboro’s Liover Peguero, then the Hoppers’ Aaron Shackleford struck out swinging…So you have two Hoppers gone, and one man on, with Frazier still stuck at second after his ninth inning lead-off Double…
So with the Greensboro Grasshoppers trailing 6-5 in the bottom of nine, with the game on the line, here comes the Hoppers’ LoLo Sanchez to the plate…Sanchez already had one game-ending, walk-off home run, under belt this season…He got that one in the very first week of the season at home, with his two-run walk-off HR…
LoLo Sanchez has done it before, and I told everyone that was listening, he might just do it again….And with two outs, Sanchez went deep to left field, and as his ball cleared the left field wall, and headed toward the backside of the ball park, the crowd erupted, and the faithful fans that had stuck around, realized that LoLo Sanchez had just saved our City…
(Sanchez got a hold of the pitch, and the ball was Going, Going, Going, Going, and that sucker was LONG GONE!!!!!)
It was a game-ending, two-out, two-run home run from LoLo Sanchez, and it was time for him to be taken into consideration to receive a ‘Key to the City’ from Mayor Nancy Vaughn…LoLo not only saved the city/our Gate City, he saved the series….
(Hoppers Win, Hoppers Win, Hoppers Win Again!!!!!)
The six-game series with Greensboro and Winston-Salem ended up tied at Three-Games-a-piece…3-3 and still eighteen more games to go between the two teams this season…..
We have just begun to scratch the surface on this game, and the series, and this game might turn out to be one of the biggest in the history of Greensboro baseball….
Very solid start on Sunday for the Greensboro Grasshoppers starting/opening pitcher, Carmen Mlodzinski….Mlodzinski from Hilton Head, South Carolina, and a former University of South Carolina Gamecock…Mlodzinski got the start for the Hoppers in last Sunday night’s Memorial Day Weekend game vs. the Wilmington Blue Rocks…Last Sunday Mlodzinski was the “Magic Man” and today/this Sunday, he had some of that same magic again…
Mlodzinski gave up singles to first two batters he faced in the game, with base-hit singles for the Dash’ Ian Dawkins and Duke Ellis, but after those opening hits off of the “Magic Man”, Mlodzinski settled down and he retired 15 of the next 19 batters he faced over his five innings of work, on the hill/mound, on Sunday afternoon for the Greensboro Grasshoppers…Mlodzinski was mowing down the Dash…
Carmen Mlodzinski worked the five opening innings of Sunday’s contest and he left the game, with the win in his back pocket….When Mlodzinski finished up his work and left the ballgame at the end of the fifth inning, the Greensboro Grasshoppers held a 5-0 lead over the Winston-Salem Dash…Mlodzinski gave up no runs, on just four hits, he walked one Dash batter, and he struck out seven WS Dash batters…
Very solid day on Sunday, for the “Magic Man”, Carmen Mlodzinski….
Bear Bellomy worked one inning for the Hoppers and was done, and Bellomy limited the Dash damage…The Dash did major damage to rest of the Hoppers bullpen on Sunday, as Grant Ford and Oliver Garcia both struggled, allowing all six of the Dash runs, on the day…
Very memorable game on Sunday afternoon, and looking forward to seeing what the Hoppers will doing next, when they get back to action again, on Tuesday….
Here are the game particulars from the Sunday afternoon GSO Grasshoppers-WS Dash baseball game…
Final Score:Greensboro Grasshoppers 7, Winston-Salem Dash 6
WP:Oliver Garcia(1-0)
LP:Caleb Freeman(1-2)
Hoppers(15-12)/Dash(15-12)…24 Game Series now tied at 3-3, after the first six games of GSO-WS…
Hoppers' line:7-12-0 Dash' line: 6-14-2
Hoppers’ hitters:Matt Frazier 3-5/Double/2 Runs/(Game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning.) Frazier leaves the game on Sunday, batting a team-leading .320….Liover Peguero 1-5…0-3/HBP/BB/Run…LoLo Sanchez 2-5/HR/2 RBI/Game-winning run with his Walk-Off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning…Fabricio Macias 3-4/Run/RBI…Jared Triolo 1-3/BB/Run/RBI…Grant Koch 1-3/BB/RBI…Matt Gorski 0-3/SAC Fly RBI…Will Matthiessen 1-4…
Dash’ hitters: Ian Dawkins 2-5/Double/Run…Duke Ellis 1-4/SB/SAC Fly RBI…Luis Curbelo 1-4/BB/Run…Lenyn Sosa 1-4/Triple/SAC Fly RBI…Yolbert Sanchez 3-5/Run…AJ Gill 1-4/HBP/2 RBI…Daniel Millwee 1-4/BB/Run…Travis Moniot 3-5/HR/2 Runs/2 RBI…Moniot did all that damage from the #9 spot in the batting order for the WS Dash….
Attendance:2,793
Time of Game/TOG-3:18