Greensboro Grasshoppers Thursday Night Baseball Playoff Report…
brought to us by Mike Causey for NC Insurance Commissioner…..
Final from Thursday night, at First National Bank Field:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 3, Hudson Valley Renegades 1
WP:Garrett McMillan(1-0)
LP:Brian Hendry(0-1)
SV:Valentin Linares(1)
Hoppers' Line- 3-3-0 Rengades' Line-1-5-2
Hoppers tie the Best-of-Three Championship Series at 1-1…South Atlantic League Northern Division Championship Game on Friday, night at First National Bank Field…Game is 6:30pm and tickets are on sale at www.gsohoppers.com for $5.00….
Hoppers stop the New York Yankees’ “Evil Empire”, with Greensboro Grasshoppers RHP Garrett McMillan getting the win from the Hoppers’ pen and he threw Five Innings of scoreless baseball, the 4th thru the 8th innings, to secure the victory for the Greensboro Grasshoppers…Excellent effort by Garrett McMillan….
Crazy is as Crazy does, but the Greensboro Grasshoppers did not get a base hit until the seventh inning of this game, and that is pure Crazy, with Greensboro having NO hits, but still leading the game, 2-0 at the conclusion of the sixth inning…
Hoppers got two walks and a run in the first inning…A throwing error by the Renegades’ catcher Antionio Gomez allowed the Grasshoppers Jack Brannigan to score…The Hoppers picked up a Walk in the second inning, and that was it…Three-Up/Three-Down for the Hoppers in the third inning…Three-Up/Three-Down for the Hoppers in the fourth inning..Three-Up/Three-Down for the Hoppers in the fifth inning..
Bottom of the sixth inning, the Hoppers grab a Walk, Javier Rivas reaches on an error, and then Jack Brannigan drives in Rivas to score, with Brannigan’s SAC Fly RBI to center field…Hoppers up 2-0 over the HV Renegades, but still NO hits…In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Grasshoppers get their first hit the game when Duce Gourson reaches on a leadoff ground ball single to right field, to get the Hoppers humming..The one hit, and that is all the Hoppers would get in the seventh frame…
Bottom of eight, Hoppers to the plate, and things are looking pretty great…Leadoff Walk for Javier Rivas, he then takes second on a Wild Pitch, and Rivas scores on a single to right field by Mitch Jebb…Double-Play ground ball by Jack Brannigan and that gets Jebb at second and Brannigan at first base, with the Twin-Killing double play…Hoppers’ Shawn Ross walks, then Omar Alfonzo comes up with a single, Ross goes to second, and then Ross ends up on third base, after a Walk to Duce Gourson…Gourson at first, Alfonzo at second, and Ross at third, with the bases loaded up with Grasshoppers, and then with two outs, Lonnie White Jr. pops up to third baseman Dylan Jasso, to end the eighth inning…Hoppers lead it, 3-0…
The Greensboro Grasshoppers had been playing shutout baseball, behind the pitching of starter Wilber Dotel, who worked three innings, then the new “King of the Hill’, Garrett McMillan came in for Five(5) superb innings of work, going the 4th thru the 8th innings to get the Win, and Valentin Linares entered the Thursday night “Twilight Zone”, to finish things off, in the Top of the Ninth Inning…
In the top of the ninth inning, Hudson Valley got their only run of the game, when Josh Moylan, from East Carolina University, homered to right field, on a line driver…The Renegades’ HR from Moylan, came off of Hoppers’ reliever Valentin Linares…Linares struck out Garrett Martin and Omar Matinez to close out the contest…
Hoppers’ starting pitcher Wilber Dotel, was to touch hard for three innings, but he had to then leave the ballgame, with what looked like some sort of arm problem…Dotel, 3 Innings, with 0 Runs/0 Hits/1 BB/4 K…Four K’s, 1 walk and yes those 4 big strikeouts from Dotel…Had the arm trouble and had to leave the game…In comes Garrett McMillan, and he was great…Milley goes Five super-solid innings, allowing 0 Runs, on 3 Hits, with 1 BB/5 Ks, and the Job of the Year, for McMillan…He had no idea he would enter this game early…Hit the hill in the third and lasted till the eighth…McMillan was killing, filling, chilling and drilling, he was “The Real Deal” there on Thursday night, at First National Bank Field…Put up a carved figure of Garrett McMillan in the Hoppers’ Mount RushDonaldMoore section of the stadium…You know, the Hoppers own version of Mount Rushmore…The Mount RushDonaldMoore edition…
You could take all night, and you could not say enough about “The Job” McMillan did in Game Two of the Northern Division Championship Series…He was “The Man”…Valentin Linares closed out the ninth on the hill for the Hoppers, giving up one run, on one hit which was the Solo Homer to right field by Josh Moylan…Linares struck out two Renegade batters, to close out the game…
Quite the Baseball Playoff Showcase on Thursday night, at FNB Field…Our coverage team(Me, Myself, and I) still can’t get over the fact that the Greensboro Grasshoppers only had three hits total, and they did not get their first hit of the game until the Seventh Inning..Crazy Is, as Crazy Does, and that stuff is Crazy…You never know…
Hopper hitters for the game:Mitch Jebb 1-4/RBI…Jack Brannigan 0-2/BB/Run/SAC Fly RBI…Shawn Ross 0-1/3 BBs…Omar Alfonzo 1-4…Duce Gourson 1-3/BB…Lonnie White Jr. 0-4…P.J. Hilson 0-2/BB…Hudson Head 0-2…Josiah Sightler 0-1…
Javier Rivas 0-2/BB/2 Runs…Two big Runs scored from the Hoppers’ Javier Rivas, and a Run and RBI from Jack Brannigan…
That’s giving you about all we got/have….Just adding in, the two errors by the Hudson Valley Renegades proved to be costly…Error on HV catcher Antonio Gomez in the first led to a Hoppers run, and the error by the ‘Gades pitcher Calderon, helped the Hoppers score a run in the sixth inning…
Game Patriculars:
Attencance-3,376
Time of Game-2:19
Game Time Temp-72 Degrees at 6:33pm
Up Next:
Hudson Valley Renegades(1-1) at the Greensboro Grasshoppers(1-1) on Friday night at First National Bank Field…First Pitch is due in, at around 6:30pm…..
