Asheville Tourists ‘Takeover’ First National Bank Field and make it their McCormick Field with 13-7 Thursday night win over the Greensboro Grasshoppers:Five Tourist Homers to Right Field

Final from Thursday night at First National Bank Field:
Asheville Tourists 13, Greensboro Grasshoppers 7
WP:Yeremi Ceballos(2-1)
LP:Alex Manasa(0-1)
SV:Jose Bravo(1)

Hoppers(33-24)/Tourists(25-31)

Tourists' line:13-17-1
Hoppers' line:  7- 8-1

Hoppers’ hitters:Aaron Shackleford 2-5/RBI…Andres Alvarez 1-3/2 Runs/2 BB’s…Matt Gorski 1-4/2 Runs…Liover Peguero 1-2/Run/3 BB’s…Jared Triolo 1-5/2 RBI…Will Matthiessen 1-4/HR…Grant Koch 1-4/HR…Blake Sabol 0-3/BB…
Grant Koch with HR #4 on the season, and for Will Mattiessen, he hit home run #3 for 2021…Koch RBI #20, Matthiessen #15, Shackleford #35 and Triolo #33, and #34….

The real story of the game seemed to be all of the home runs coming off of the Asheville Tourists bats on Thursday night…It was as if home plate was a launching pad for the Tourists, and they went to right field five times, with the LONG BALL, and they really were LONG GONE…It was almost like Asheville turned the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ field, First National Bank Field, into the Tourists’ home park, historic McCormick Field…The Asheville sluggers hitting the ball out, like they were back home at McCormick Field…

McCormick Field, in Asheville, has a right field porch/fence that goes only around 290 feet, and on Thursday night, the Tourist batters were hitting the ball to right field, like they were right at home, back at McCormick Field….

It got started for Asheville in the fifth inning, when Deury Carrasco and Alex Holderbach, homered back-to-back to right field…Then in the seventh inning, Holderbach homered to right field again…And in the top of the ninth inning, Cesar Salazar and Emmanuel Valdez both homered to right field…Four solo homers, and one two-run shot by the Tourists to right field, on Thursday night…

Again, the Tourists must have thought they were back home in Asheville, they way the were hitting the ball out of First National Bank Field, on Thursday night…It was like they were at their home park, McCormick Field, but in reality, it was more like they were at First National Right Field…These kids know their rights, and they got right to them on Thursday night…

Seventeen total hits for the Tourists, and five of the seventeen were home runs….Grasshoppers’ pitching struck out 16 Tourist batters, but the Hoppers also walked 9 Asheville batters…Ceasar Salazar was 4-5, with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored for Asheville..Salazar also drew a walk…Alex Holderbach was 4-5, with 3 Runs and 4 RBI for Asheville, and Holderbach had two of the Tourists’ five home runs…Carloa Machado was 3-5, and he had an BB and a run for Asheville…

The Asheville Tourists had 44 plate appearances on Thursday night, and the Greensboro Grasshoppers made it to the plate ten less times, with 34 plate appearances….

Excellent bullpen effort from the Asheville Tourists Jose Bravo on Thursday night, as he worked five innings of relief pitching and qualified for the extended inning save…Bravo gave up 0 runs, on three Hopper hits, and he walked two Hoppers and he struck out seven Greensboro Grasshoppers, in is five innings of work on the mound, for the Tourists…Heard one fan singing his praises saying, “Bravo Bravo”…..

Attendance:3,134
Time of Game/TOG-4:08

Time to get things back to the good old First National Bank Field on Friday night, when the Greensboro Grasshoppers will send their RHP Grant Ford to mound and the usual/regular reliever, will get the start for the Hoppers on Friday….Asheville will go with RHP Danny Cody, on the hill, for Game Four of this Six-Game Series…Hoppers lead the series, 2-1, and if you can’t make it out to the game on Friday night, be sure to tune into CLICK HERE and listen live to the Hoppers-Tourists baseball game…And be sure to follow the Greensboro Grasshoppers all season long at www.gsohoppers.com…..