Courtesy of RE/MAX Revolution, the Top Real Estate Sales Team in the Triad…..
Very active day, on Wednesday, as the 6,766 Guilford County Schools second-graders settled in at First National Bank Field, to watch the Greensboro Grasshoppers take on the Jersey Shore BlueClaws…The kids did not leave the ballpark disappointed, as they learned a new phrase that they will remember for at least several days…
“Let’s Go Hoppers”, you could hear that chant carrying from Lindsey Street to Reedy Fork, from Bellemeade Street to Bessemer Avenue and back, from Eugene Street to East Gate City Blvd., and from Edgeworth Street all the way out to Bunker Hill Road, in the Northwest corridor…
The school kids nearly flipped their lids, as they soaked in all the sights and sounds of Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball for this Wednesday morning/Wednesday afternoon…Some of those kids had probably never been to a professional baseball game before, and many of them had most likely never experienced a live baseball game of any type…
On this day, at this game, the Guilford County Schools second-graders saw baseball stars of the future, and the second-graders sort became stars in their own right…
I heard them, and if you were within 20 miles of downtown Greensboro, you probably heard them too…
“Let’s Go Hoppers”…”Let’s Go Hoppers”, “Let’s Go Hoppers”…The Greensboro Grasshoppers’ fan motivator “Kerve” gave them the word, and those second-graders could shell and spell out, “Let’s Go Hoppers”, by the time that they boarded their buses, and headed back to their different/respective Guilford County Schools…
It makes for a great field trip, and a very beneficial Educational Experience, with the kids that were at the ballpark today, having a very special takeaway of some baseball history…Baseball history, you might ask??? Yes, these kids should now be able to spell the word baseball without having to look it up on their cell phones, and I know for a fact, that each one of those second-graders that attended today’s game can recite from memory, “Let’s Go Hoppers”…..That within itself is a important learning moment, and that my friends, is Outdoor Education at/in its finest hour….
We learned, and did not get burned, because the Greensboro Grasshoppers were the ones heating up on this Wednesday….
What did we see, and what did we learn???
We saw the Hoppers jump out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, and we learned when you have the opposing pitcher down, you need to take him, “Down and Out”…The Hoppers jumped on Jersey Shore starting pitcher Gunner Mayer hard, and touched him up for five runs, on just one hit, but that one hit was a three-run HR, by Greensboro’s Sammy Siani, and with that, Mayer was out of there…Mayer lasted just two-thirds of an inning, and before the first was finished, Mayer was headed to the showers…The kids could look up on the scoreboard, and read Greensboro 5, Jersey Shore 0, after one frame…
Greensboro’s starting pitcher Brad Case is still on his rehab assignment from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he was fairly sharp today in his role as the opener…We have seen him mainly from then pen(bullpen) in the past this season…Jaycob Deese came on to work in relief of Case, and Deese did his job, and he earned the win…The only hotspot problem for Deese, was the home run he gave up to the BlueClaws’ Rixon Wingrove in the fourth inning…Mitchell Miller gave the Hoppers time on the hill, and he had a clean outing, but Oliver Mateo did not fare as well, with his time on the bump not lasting long at all…Mateo was gone after facing Kendall Simmons in the eighth inning, with Simmons going yard off of Mateo, and Simmons’ shot was a three-run clout, that cut the Grasshoppers lead in half, taking it from an 8-1 game, to an 8-4 game, advantage still on the side of the Grasshoppers…
As Mateo was walking out, Cy Nielson was walking in, and he was the salvo that quieted the storm, and Nielson got the game back in order, by closing out the BlueClaws in the eighth inning, and then he came back out and finished off the ‘Claws in the ninth…
The good ole saying goes when the Hoppers finish off an opponent, and grab another victory, that we let go with a bellow of “Hoppers Win”, “Hoppers Win”, “Hoppers Win”, “Hoppers Win Again”…..And that order of action was in order again, at conclusion of the contest on this Wednesday…
Final Score:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 8, Jersey Shore BlueClaws 4
WP:Jaycob Deese(2-0)/LP:Gunner Mayer(0-2)
Hoppers-8-5-0 Claws- 4-6-0
Greensboro Grasshoppers(18-11)
Jersey Shore BlueClaws(12-13)
Attendance:6,766
Time of Game-2:24
Game Time Temp:66 degrees at 11:03am
From our closing notes on today’s game…Tres Gonzalez was 2-3 for the Hoppers, with 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI…Tsung-Che Cheng had a nice Triple for the Grasshoppers, and he picked up his ninth stolen base of the season…All of this to go along with that three-run home run from Sammy Siani…And yes, let’s don’t forget, Hudson Head with a Double and 2 RBI for Greensboro…
For Jersey Shore, they saw Rixon Wingrove and Kendall Simmons go long, Wingrove with the solo dinger, and Simmons bringing in three runs, with his round-tripper…On a BlueClaws pitching note, Jersey Shore sent out their reliever Chase Antle to work the third and fourth innings, and Antle was a bull or horse out there on the slab today, take your pick…Over his two innings, Chase did not allow a Hopper to reach base, coming with no runs, on no hits, no walks, and three large strikeouts…And what is the backstory on Chase Antle??? He is a former Coastal Carolina Chanticleer, from Ohio, and he played for the Asheboro Copperheads, in the local Coastal Plain League for Summer collegiate baseball players, and one of his coaches was Enad Haddad, a former assistant baseball coach at WSSU, Greensboro College, and at N.C. A&T University…Not bad, Enad Haddad, and Chase Antle, hooking up here locally, back in the day….Check out the video below, of Chase Antle on the go, and watch him throw/pitch/deliver in Wednesday’s game…
Up Next:Thursday will be another day, and it will be the Jersey Shore BlueClaws at the Greensboro Grasshoppers with the first pitch due up at 6:30pm, on Thirsty Thursday, at First National Bank Field…If you can’t get there, or if you want to follow along while at the game, or as you are leaving the ballpark, be sure to Listen in Live, on GSOHoppers.com…CLICK HERE and you are connected to the LIVE broadcast…
And lest we forget, before we move on for today…Our Steak n Shake Players of the Game were those 6,766 Second-Graders, from the Guilford County Schools…They must have been good for at least five of the Hoppers’ eight runs on Wednesday…And at that rate, the Hoppers still win the game, 5-4…..And if we could have just seen all of those 6,766 Kids Running the Bases after the game….Can you imagine that sight??? That would have been pure Dynamite….