Courtesy of Omega Sports, “Your Neighborhood Sports Store”, on Battleground Avenue, in Greensboro….
Final from the Fourth of July Monday game, at First National Bank Field:Greensboro Grasshoppers 11, Greenville Drive 4
WP:Cameron Junker(4-2)/LP:Joey Stock(0-1)
Hoppers(32-43/5-5)/Drive(29-47)
Hoppers' line:11-13-1 Drive' line: 4- 6-1
I have seen Fourth of July games with the Greensboro professional baseball teams, where the crowd was so packed, the fans were coming through the window and into the press box, there have been games where the game, looked like it would last all night long, and there have been so many variations of these Fourth of July games from over the years, it is hard to go back and recollect/remember them all…
There were games when the local Greensboro baseball team would call me up on the Fourth of July, and tell me to get downtown, they needed me to call/broadcast the game, since their regular guy was sick, and they needed me to take over for a few days/games, and after doing these games for parts of five decades, you would think maybe we/I would have seen it all, but no, Monday July 4, 2022 was one of a kind, it was its own beast/animal….
This one of those special nights, that will live with you for at least a few more days, maybe stay with us until at least Thursday or Friday of this week…
So, what made this Monday July 4, 2022 game so unique??? Well, for one thing the Greensboro Grasshoppers got down early, they were trailing 3-0, after one-half inning, with a three-run home from the Greenville Drives’ catcher Nathan Hickey being the spark that got the Drive fire burning on this warm Monday night…Top of the first inning, and Hickey slaps a shot to left center field, and it clears to the fence to put the Drive on top, by that 3-0 score…
And that score would remain the same until the top of fifth inning, when Hickey connected for a single to center that brought home the Drives’ Matthew Lugo and that made the new score, 4-0, Greenville Drive…And with that 4-0 GRL lead, things were looking very dim for the GSO Hoppers…
Lately when the Hoppers have been getting down early they have not been making the comebacks, to capture the victories…And when the Hoppers grab early leads, the opposing team has been putting on the rally caps, and racing past the Grasshoppers, and stomping out any good chances for a Greensboro Grasshopper win…
But, on this night things would be different, we would be witness to what I believe to be, the biggest Greensboro Grasshoppers’ Fourth of July comeback victory, in the history of the Hoppers…
Remember, I have been watching the Greensboro professional baseball teams for right at 50 years, and I do remember one year, when #22 Matt Winters hit a Grand Slam home run to win it for the hometown Greensboro Hornets, and his game-winner came in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Hornets were only down by three runs when Winters knocked it out of the old War Memorial Stadium, and that big night was back in the early 1980’s, sometime back around 1982…Back when the local team had Matt Winters, Don Mattingly, Otis Nixon, Greg Gagne, Todd Demeter and others…
But, here on July 4, 2022, the Greensboro Grasshoppers trailed the Greenville Drive, 4-0, going to the bottom of the fifth inning, and before the bottom of the bottom of the fifth, the Hoppers had not shown much life at all in this game…They only had two hits to show for their efforts on offense, and then came the Fifth, on the Fourth….
Sammy Siani reaches first base, on an error by the Drive first baseman, Nico Kavadas…Newcomer Mike Jarvis gets his first hit as a Hopper, driving home Siani, after Sammy had stole second base, with his 20th stolen base of the season…Jarvis scored on a single from Hudson Head, then Head scored after a Double from Francisco Acuna…For a team that only had two hits on the night, prior the the Fifth Inning, the Hoppers picked up three hits in the fifth, and we were seeing sure signs that the Hoppers Were Heating Up…
The Hoppers tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Hudson Head drove the ball out of the park to left field, for his fourth HR of the season, and his fourth home run of the year, came on the Fourth of July, and the solo homer, knotted the score up, at 4-4…For the team that was trailing, 4-0, this bunch of Hoppers has new life, and it seemed like the blast from Head, had helped light a fuse under this ball team, and you also had to think, the ignition by Head, was just a beginning spark that would get the fire going…
So we are now all locked up at 4-4, and the Hoppers pitching is limiting any damage that the GRL Drive might have in mind, and we fast forward to the bottom of the eighth inning, and that is where the fireworks business really start so pick up…The GSO Hoppers produce 7 runs, on 7 hits, in the bottom of the 8th inning, to seemingly put this game out of reach…The Greensboro Grasshoppers go up 11-4, and we see the baseball leaving the yard again, this time not just once, but twice….Magic Mike Jarvis with a three-run home run, and not to be outdone, Endy Rodriguez duplicates what Jarvis did, with Endy ending his night at the plate, with a three-run home run of his own….
In that bottom of the eighth, the Hoppers also got a Double from Hudson Head, a single from Jacob Gonzalez, and they came up with two walks, and those two free passes were awarded to Abrahan Gutierrez and Francisco Acuna…Gutierrez batted twice in that eighth inning, adding a single to his walk…A total of twelve Hoppers came to the plate, in the bottom of that eighth inning…Seven runs, on seven hits, and all of the other good stuff in-between…
This all made for a special Fourth of July comeback victory, and the Hoppers made some memories that they can take with them, on the Road to Pittsburgh….
Not a bad overall pitching night from the Grasshoppers staff, with Nick Garcia, the Hoppers’ starter giving up the four Greenville Drive runs, over his five innings of work, but Garcia did keep the game within reach, and that was enough to give the good guys a chance to win this contest…Denny Roman and WP Cameron Junker more than did their part in the effort to secure this big Fourth of July victory, with Roman and Junker combining to throw four shoutout innings of solid baseball…
This is where we find out that Roman and Junker really shined, when you consider that they gave up Zero runs, on just one hit, with three walks and two strikeouts…That is very efficient and clean baseball…Roman and Junker were like a couple of Fourth of July roman candles out there on the mound, and Roman was overall stronger than Junker on this night….
But, the Greensboro Grasshoppers got that very impressive Fourth of July comeback win, and our Steak n Shake Players of the Game were Mike Jarvis, Hudson Head, and Endy Rodriguez….Jarvis with his first Hopper hits and RBI, and he goes 2-4/HR/Double/2 Runs/4 RBI…Hudson Head 3-4/Double/HR/3 Runs/2 RBI…Endy Rodriguez 2-5/HR/Run/3 RBI…
Time of Game-2:38
Attendance:7,863
Next Up:Greenville Drive at the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Wednesday night at 6:30pm, at First National Bank Field…..
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