Greensboro Grasshoppers Thursday Night Baseball Report…
brought to us by Mike Causey for NC Insurance Commissioner…..
Walter Cronkite used to talk about, “That’s The Way It Is”, while Charlie Harville always talked about, “That’s The Best In Sports Today”….We may have seen both of those phrases go full cycle on Thursday night, at First National Bank Field…Both Mr. Cronkite, and Mr. Harville were local CBS affiliate broadcasters, and tonight our local broadcast outlets would have had a real/full field day, reporting on the Greensboro Grasshoppers successful evening, at First National Bank Field….
As one of the old tunes used to start off, “Where Do I Begin???”…So what do you say I start off with the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ starting pitcher “Dominant” Dominic Perachi…Perachi goes 6 innings, giving up 0(zero) runs, on just one hit, with 0(zero) walks, and 11 huge strikeouts…After the first A’ville Tourist batter(Logan Cerny) reached on an error, “Dominant” Dominic Perachi retired and struck out each of the next seven(7) A’ville batters he faced…
Perachi leaves out after his six frames, with eleven(11) total strikeouts, and he was nothing but, “Dominant”, and he worked quick…No wasted time, get the ball back from catcher Geovanny Planchart, and bring it right back to the plate, while attacking the A’ville Tourists batters all the while…Perachi set the tone for this game, with his super strong opening effort, and the pitching staff as a whole Thursday night unit, with Perachi, Jaycob Deese, and Elijah Birdsong manning the bump/mound/hill, those 3 Hopper hurlers struck out sixteen(16) Asheville Tourists, and walked NONE(0)….That is good stuff right there, YESSir…
A’ville picked up three(3) late runs from the Hoppers’ pen, but I will concur with what Greensboro Grasshoppers beat writer Bill Hass used to say, “Those late runs, were merely cosmetic runs”….The game was already pretty much over when the Tourists came home to score, those three times….One of the crazy things is that Asheville got their three runs off of Home Runs…Those homers just keep coming for both the Hoppers and the Tourists…A’ville with 2 HRs in this Thursday night game, they also had five(5) solo homers back on Tuesday, and two(HRs) on Wednesday…That gives A’ville 9 Home Runs for the week, and now 122 for the 2024 season…
Asheville home runs, those Tourists are killing it, right??? Yes, but look at the Greensboro Grasshoppers HR totals…For the week, the Hoppers with 4 Long Balls on Tuesday, just One Dinger on Wednesday, but three Big Bombs on Thursday for 8 HRs on the week, and now the SALLY League’s top home run hitting team for 2024 has 147 Hopper Homers for the season…The season of the Summer in the SALLY, is going LONG GONE….
Wow, “Dominant” Perachi, homers, and maybe the Biggest Defensive Play of the Season, all in the same game…It was some kind of night, and Josiah Sightler, the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ first baseman, made a catch in the Top of the Sixth Inning, that took the cake…The Cake, The Pie, The Check Please…The Tourists’ Jackson Loftin popped up a foul ball on the right side/first base side, and coming over from first base play to make the grab, was a nimble and loose Josiah Sightler…So loose that he made the catch falling over the railing of the Asheville Tourists’ first base dugout…Sightler was falling into the dugout, and hit that rail…And his body went flying over the railing, but he held on to the ball, and made the pop-up catch play….Here goes Sightler over that railing and his long body fits that railing just right, and makes what might go down as one of, it not “The Defensive Play of the Year”….Some kind of catch by Josiah Sightler, and just hanging on to the ball, as he goes falling over the railing and into the Tourists’ dugout, this was a “Special Play”, right there, right then, and right now……
Perachi, Sightler, and you had Jack Brannigan’s three-run home run, Maikol Escotto’s three-run home run, and there was Sightler and he had a two-run homer…Twelve(12) Hopper runs in the game, and those HRs were responsible for eight(8) of the 12 tallies…And then you had Mitch Jebb…Jebb goes 3-4/BB/3 Runs/2 RBI…One of Jebb’s hits was a perfectly executed bunt single…So, Jebb has been on a tear lately, and he was at it again tonight/Thursday…Then overall we saw Jack Brannigan go 3-4/HR/Double/2 Runs/4 RBI…Brannigan had to leave the game with injury, when he made a stop of a ground ball on defense, from his SS spot…Sightler was 1-4/HR/BB/Run/2 RBI…Maikol Escotto goes 2-4/HR/3 Runs/3 RBI/SB…Wyatt Hendrie 1-3/BB/2 Runs/SB…Luke Brown 1-4/Run/SB…Lonnie White Jr. 0-4/BB/RBI…Termarr Johnson 0-4/BB…Hottest, I guess we go with Brannigan, Escotto, and Jebb overall….
(Brannigan with HR #17 on the season, and his RBI total goes to 51….Sightler now with 11 Home Runs, and Escotto with 7 long balls.)
Man, that is quite a bit of content for you there….Now for a quick glance at the A’ville Tourists offense from Thursday night…Narbe Cruz was 1-3/HR/2 RBI…Oliver Carrillo went 1-3/HR…Austin Deming goes 2-4/Run…Luis Baez was 1-4…And that gives you the Tourists total of 3 runs, on 5 hits…
Lots of content in this post, and we have given you most of the what went up, did come down, and as it was a “Good Thing”, because most of the positive happenings were going in the right direction, on Thursday night, at First National Bank Field….
And now we have come this far, and it is now time to give you the basic game results….Better late, than never….
Final Score from Thursday night, at First National Bank Field:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 12, Asheville Tourists 3
WP:Dominic Perachi(7-2)
LP:Ethan Pecko(0-2)
Hoppers' Line-12-11-2 Tourists' Line-3- 5-2
Greensboro Grasshoppers(57-35/18-9)
Asheville Tourists(38-52/10-16)
Game Particulars:
Attendance-2,947
Time of Game-2:32
Game Time Temp-78 Degrees at 6:35pm
Up Next:
Asheville Tourists(38-52) at the Greensboro Grasshoppers(57-35) on Friday night, at First National Bank Field, with the first pitch on the way in at 6:30pm…..
SALLY League Scores from Thursday:
GVL 5, HIC 4
*****GBO 12, ASH 3*****
W:
Perachi
(6 – 2)
L:
Pecko
(0 – 2)
HV 5, WIL 2
GVL 7, HIC 6
ROM 5, BRK 2
ABD 3, JS 2
BG 5, WS 4
TODAY’s/Friday’s Games in the SALLY League
Asheville
@
Greensboro
6:30 PM ET
Dombroski
(4 – 8)
vs.
Diamond
(5 – 2)
Hudson Valley
@
Wilmington
6:35 PM ET
Greenville
@
Hickory
7:00 PM ET
Rome
@
Brooklyn
7:00 PM ET
Aberdeen
@
Jersey Shore
7:05 PM ET
TBD
Winston-Salem
@
Bowling Green
7:35 PM ET
Pittsburgh Pirates System:
Class A Bradenton Marauders lost on Thursday, 5-3, to the Lakeland Flying Tigers…Today it is Lakeland(57-34) at Bradenton(39-54) at 6:30pm…Former Hopper LHP Anthony Solometo in a rehab start for the Marauders…
Double A Altoona Curve fell 5-4 to the Erie Seawolves on Thursday…LP Eddy Yean, now (5-4)…Nick Cimillo goes 2-4…Tres Gonzalez was 2-4…Jace Bowen 1-3/Double/Run/SB…Brendan Dixon 1-4/RBI…Jackson Glenn 1-4/RBI…Sun Che Chen 1-5/2 Runs…Charles McAdoo 1-5/RBI/SB…Abrahan Gutierrez 1-5/Run…Sammy Siani 0-4/RBI…All nine position players former Hoppers either from this season, or last season, and all nine contributing…Po Yu Chen the start and he goes 7 innings, while Luis Peralta gets stuck with the Blown Save, and worked for two innings in relief…..TODAY it is Altoona(39-54) at the Erie Seawolves(54-37) at 6:35pm…Thomas Harrington(2-2) will get the start for the Curve…
Triple A Indianapolis Indians topped the Iowa Cubs on Thursday, 7-2…Matt Gorski was 2-3/BB/2 Runs…Henry Davis 1-5/Run/RBI/SB…Liover Peguera 1-3/2 BBs…Billy McKinney 0-4/BB…Former Hopper Michael Burrows got the start for the Indians, and he went 4 innings, and struck out 5 batters…TODAY Indianapolis(43-52) at Iowa Cubs(43-56) at 8:08pm….Pirates(52-50) OFF Thurs..