Omega Sports Report:Near-Perfect Baseball from Greensboro Grasshoppers on Sunday night at FNB Field(Hoppers’ pitcher Justin Meis, perfect for 7 Innings/Hoppers for 8 1/3 Inns.)

Courtesy of Omega Sports, “Your Neighborhood Sports Store”, on Battleground Avenue…..The sports store that Greensboro and Triad area people have grown to depend upon, Omega Sports, where they are there for you…Again, on Battleground Avenue, in Greensboro….

Final from Sunday night at First National Bank Field:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 6, Winston-Salem Dash 0
WP:Justin Meis(4-4)
LP:Brooks Gosswein(0-4)
Last home game of the season for the Greensboro Grasshoppers and their starting pitcher, Justin Meis, goes 7 innings, giving up 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, and he struck out 7 WS Dash batters…Meis was Perfect through 7 innings, nobody from Winston-Salem reached base…

Meis was perfect, and the Hoppers stayed perfect through 8 1/3 innings…Reliever Santiago Florez came in and he took down the first four batters he faced, before he gave up a single to Cabrera Weaver, and then he walked James Beard…With the ground ball base hit to right field by Weaver, the “Perfect Game” was gone, but the Greensboro Grasshoppers end up with a one-hit shutout victory over the WS Dash, during the last home game of the 2022 season, on a Sunday night, at First National Bank Field…

Three home runs from the Grasshopper hitters, with solo HR’s from Mike Jarvis, Jacob Gonzalez, and Jace Bowen…

It was a Near-Perfect night, at First National Bank Field…On a sad note, the Hoppers said goodbye to their ‘Fan Motivator’ from the past 18 years, Spaz…Spaz stepped down, at the end of tonight’s ball game…
(Thank-you Spaz, for all of your great work and energy at the ballpark, over the past 18 seasons.)

Hoppers' line:6-9-0
Dash' line:   0-1-0

Greensboro Grasshoppers take the Season Series from the WS Dash, 13-11…Hoppers win this current Six-Game home stand from the Dash, Four-Games-to-Two…

Hoppers now at (57-66) and Dash are (56-70)…

Pitching-wise, this is one of, if the not the best game ever, in the history of Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball, at First National Bank Field….Are you kidding me, and I don’t even use that term very often, but are you kidding me????? The Greensboro Grasshoppers were just two outs away, from a “Perfect Game”…..

This all happened tonight on Labor Day Sunday, 2022…The closet thing I remember to this game-greatness, was back in 2008, on Labor Day Sunday night, when Giancarlo(Mike) Stanton hit his 39th home run of the season…

It was on that Sunday night, and I was calling that LONG GONE home run to right field, by Mike Stanton….And then here we go tonight, on Labor Sunday again, and this time in 2022, and we get about the closest thing that we will ever get to a, “Perfect Game”…

We were so close, and I for sure wasn’t even talking about it, not even bringing up the prospect of a Perfect Game, even though we were just two outs away…The baseball historians say you never bring it up, don’t mention that the “Perfect Game” is a even a possibility, or it might be taken away…(The jinx will get ya.)

I have been calling/announcing these local professional baseball games for parts of five decades, and tonight might have just been the best overall pitching performance that I have ever seen…I have been calling the Greensboro games for 18 straight years now, and most nights, to be honest with you, it can get a bit mundane…

You get the games where you are down 10-3, and just trying to get to the back gate at the ballpark, and head on home…You get the games where you are up 5-3, going to the top of the ninth inning, and the opposing team then posts two runs to tie the game up, and you are headed to the unsacred bonus baseball, and the 10th inning is coming your way, and who knows, you may end up losing in the 11th, or 12th inning…Or you may pull out a walkoff home run, and get the win…Those nights are a bit memorable, but most nights, you just move on, try and put it all behind you, and you don’t look back much…

But, on this Sunday night, it was all different, we were going someplace we had not been before, and it was exciting on this night…Up 6-0, and taking a Perfect Game to the Top of the Ninth Inning, and this is like stepping into No-Man’s Land…This was not only a game, this was an event…

So close to Perfection, but even though the goal of Perfection was not achieved, the memories will live on for a good while…Can’t think of a better way to close out the Grasshoppers’ 2022 season…In some of the games, your team comes back, and pulls off the win, or they give the game away on a big hit that comes late in the game, and you walk away with that certain empty feeling….

Yet, a game like the Labor Day Sunday game of 2022, it was all different…The “Perfect Game” starts out slowly, and then it begins to build….As the game goes on, the interest continues to grow, and the intensity level goes up, and steadily increases…

The no-hitter would be great, but here we were sitting in the Top of Ninth Inning, and just TWO outs away from a professional baseball game, “Perfect Game”…I don’t know about you, but as for me and my non-perfect mind and body, we are going to have some trouble getting to sleep tonight…All the way turned up, and wired up…That is the way this day/night will be winding down…Just Two outs away from the “Perfect Game”, and I was surely not playing in the game, but I was calling the game, and I was right there on top of each and every play in this game…

Sometimes the body and soul will drift a little bit over a nine inning contest, but not on this night…The “Perfect Game” was within reach, but as agent 86 Maxwell Smart used to say, “We missed it by this much”, and he would show a small space between his two fingers…

Better to be there, and come up just a little bit short, than to never be there at all…Good to be there on this Sunday night….
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Hopper hitters from Sunday night:Jace Bowen 3-4/HR/Run/RBI…Jacob Gonzalez 2-4/HR/2 Run/2 RBI…Mike Jarvis 1-3/HR/BB/Run/RBI…Hudson Head 1-4/Run…Ernny Ordonez 1-4…Claudio Finol 1-3…Abrahan Gutierrez 0-3/BB/Run…

Hoppers’ reliever Santiago Florez goes two innings, giving up 0 Runs, on 1 hit, with 1 BB/2 K’s…Nine strikeouts and just one walk, from the Hoppers’ pitching staff on Sunday night….
++++++++++++++++The Steak n Shake Player of the Game, for the final Greensboro Grasshoppers home baseball game of the 2022 season, is without a shadow of a doubt, Justin Meis….Mighty nice, we will print it twice….Justin Meis, as in mice, our Steak n Shake Player of the Game, with the Greensboro Grasshoppers top pitching performance, of the 2022 season…..++++++++++++++++++++++++

Attendance:6,438
Time of Game-2:11