Greensboro Grasshoppers Friday Night Baseball Report…
brought to us by Mike Causey for NC Insurance Commissioner…..
This is the one that got away…This was one, that maybe was never within the Greensboro Grasshoppers grasp…Christmas morning, and you get up and there is nothing under the tree…This was Christmas in July Night, and the A’ville Tourists chopped down the Grasshoppers Christmas Tree, and made this a not so pleasant memory for us, here at the end of July, and nearing the end of the Greensboro Grasshoppers regular season…
This week the Grasshoppers were winning on Tuesday and Thursday, while the Tourists have claimed victories on Wednesday and Friday…Every other day the Hoppers are winners…On the opposite days, Asheville celebrates at First National Bank Field…This means the Grasshoppers should be ready to raise the Jolley Hopper again on Saturday evening…As far as Sunday goes, Patrick Reilly is due to pitch for the Hoppers, so that might be the chance to break the on-going thread…
The Saturday night scheduled Hoppers starting pitcher will be J.P. Massey, and to my recollection, we have not seen him in a month of Sundays or Saturdays, for that matter…
Now as far as Friday night goes, here we goes with the recap…
Final Score from Friday night at First National Bank Field:
Asheville Tourists 6, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
WP:Trey Dombroski(5-8)
LP:Derek Diamond(5-3)
SV:Kelly Austin(3)
Tourists' Line-6-11-2 Hoppers' Line- 4- 9-0
Greensboro Grasshoppers(57-36/18-10)
Asheville Tourists(39-52/11-16)
The Tourists scored early in the game, posting runs in short bunches, with two runs in the top of the second inning, and then four runs in the top of the third inning, and that was all she wrote for A’ville…After that it was don’t let the Hoppers come back and win…Not another run Friday for Asheville…
Unfortunately, the Greensboro Grasshoppers fell right into the Tourists road map plans…The Hoppers posted one run in the bottom of the second inning, to the cut the A’ville lead to one run, at Tourists 2, Hoppers 1…But the Greensboro Nine did not respond again until very late in the contest…
With A’ville holding on to their 6-1 lead, the Hoppers mounted a charge, and they came up with two runs in the eighth inning, and one more in the ninth, on Termarr Johnson’s solo HR….That gave us that final score of 6-4 Tourists, but to be honest with you, the game never seemed all that close…A final two-run advantage for the guys from the mountains, but it was like this game was never really anywhere near the Hoppers corner, on Bellemede and Eugene Streets…
But take nothing away from the Greensboro Grasshoppers total overall effort…That kid Mitch Jebb has really been on a roll…Friday Jebb goes 3-4, with a run scored…Back on Thursday, Jebb goes 3-4, with a walk, plus three runs scored and two runs driven in…That’s 6-8 right there, plus Wednesday Jebb went 1-4, with a Double…Tuesday Jebb was 2-4, with two runs scored…Jebb is now up to 26 stolen bases on the season…For the week, that would put Jebb at 9-16, with 6 runs scored…Not a bad week on any account…
So on the overview for Friday, Jebb again, was 3-4/Run…Termarr Johnson was 1-5/HR/Run/RBI…Lonnie White Jr. 1-3/BB/Run/RBI…Great catch defensively in left field by White Jr. too…P.J. Hilson was 1-4…Josiah Sightler was 0-4/Run…Geovanny Planchart goes 1-4…Maikol Escotto went 1-4/RBI…Sergio Campana gets his first hit as a Hopper, going 1-4…Only multi-hit man was Jebb…Hoppers do come up with 9 hits, but they were so spread out, and they couldn’t string together the necessary thread, to sew up a victory…
Major damage from the Tourists in those 2nd and 3rd innings, and that was their power surge/output…As Mr. Mays(Willie) used to say, the Beeg Man for Asheville was Narbe Cruz, who had two home runs, including a two-run HR, and a three-run HR…Cruz goes 2-3/2 HRs/BB/2 Runs/5 RBI…Austin Deming went 3-4/Double/Run…Cam Fisher was 1-4/2 Runs…Oliver Carrillo goes 1-4/Double…John Garcia was 1-3/BB/Run…Logan Cerny ends up 1-5…Same for Luis Baez, he went 1-5…Ryan Johnson was 1-4…Pretty steady hitting there for the Tourists…Eight of the nine Asheville batters, were hitters on Friday night…
The Tourists struck out 13 times, and the Hoppers only 8…Hoppers’ staring pitcher Derek Diamond allowed all 6 Asheville runs, on 7 hits, with 0 BBs/6 Ks…From the Greensboro Grasshoppers bullpen, you had Alessandro Ercolani, Julian Bosnic, and Elijah Birdsong combining to give up 0 runs, on 4 hits, with 2 BBs/7 Ks..Very good work over their five innings on the hill…There were four innings from starter Diamond…
WP Trey Dombroski, from Asheville, was tagged for just one run, over 5 innings, where he gave up four hits, while walking one Hopper batter, and he was striking out two Grasshoppers…Very efficient work from Dombroski…
Series now tied at 2-2 this week, and the Hoppers are due for another win on Saturday night…
Game Particulars:
Attendance-4,147
Time of Game-2:42
Game Time Temp-78 Degrees at 6:34pm
Up Next:
Asheville Tourists(39-52/11-16) at the Greensboro Grasshoppers(57-36/18-10) at First National Bank Field, on Saturday night at 6:30pm…
Friday’s SALLY League Results:
*****ASH 6, GBO 4*****
WIL 5, HV 2
GVL 10, HIC 0
BRK 12, ROM 5
JS 6, ABD 5
Winston-Salem
@
Bowling Green
Postponed
Games for Saturday in the SALLY League:
Greenville
@
Hickory
5:00 PM ET
Winston-Salem
@
Bowling Green
5:30 PM ET
Winston-Salem
@
Bowling Green
Game 2
Bowling Green Ballpark – Bowling Green, KY
Rome
@
Brooklyn
6:00 PM ET
Hudson Valley
@
Wilmington
6:05 PM ET
Asheville
@
Greensboro
6:30 PM ET
True
(2 – 3)
vs.
Massey
(3 – 4)
Aberdeen
@
Jersey Shore
7:05 PM ET
Pittsburgh Pirates System:
Class A Bradenton Marauders fall hard to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, 8-1 final…LP Anthony Solometo, former Hopper…Another former Hoppers, Brad Case was in from the pen…TODAY:Lakeland(58-34) at Bradenton(39-55) at 6:30pm…
Double A Altoona Curve were winners 3-1 over the Erie Seawolves…WP Jaden Woods(2-2) a Hopper from this year’s staff…Charles McAdoo and Sun Che Cheng both were 1-3…Abrahan Gutierrez and Tres Gonzalez both went 1-4…Woods, Thomas Harrington and Justin Meis were the pitchers…TODAY:Altoona(40-54) at Erie(54-38) at 6:05pm…Bubba Chandler goes for the Curve and he is (5-6) on the year…
Triple A Indianapolis Indians topped the Iowa Cubs, 7-3, on Friday…Henry Davis goes 3-6/2 Doubles/Run/RBI…Matt Gorski 2-4/BB/2 Runs/RBI…Matt Frazier 1-5/RBI…Andres Alvarez 2-5/RBI…TODAY it will be Indianapolis(44-52) at Iowa, to take on the Cubs(43-57), at 7:08pm.
MLB Pittsburgh Pirates lost 4-3 on Friday to the Arizona Diamondbacks. LP Carmen Mlodzinski(2-4)…Nick Gonzalez 1-5/Run…Joshua Palacios 1-3/2 RBI…TODAY Pirates(52-51) at Diamondbacks(54-50) at 8:10pm