Final from Sunday afternoon at First National Bank Field:
Asheville Tourists 12, Greensboro Grasshoppers 10
WP:Colby Langford(1-0)
LP:Mike Walsh(0-1)
SV:Hudson Leach(1)
Tourists-12-14-2 Hoppers- 10-11-2
Greensboro Grasshoppers(2-1)/Asheville Tourists(1-2)
Hoppers win the the Three-Game Homestand, 2-1….
Six Solo HR’s from the Asheville Tourists and that can put a dent in your hopes for the Hoppers, but the Solo shots can hurt you, but they won’t kill, or so they say…But it was Cam Fisher(from Morganton, N.C. and the Charlotte 49ers), Will Bush, Christian Gonzalez, Garrett Guillemette, Alejandro Nuez, and Trevor Austin, all going long for the Asheville Tourists…We call these homers, “Kiss That Baby Goodbye” homers in honor of Mike Hogewood(WFMY TV 2 Sports) and Rich Brenner(FOX 8 Sports)….
We sent out the REMAX Player of the Game Award to the Hoppers’ Maikol Escotto, for his his 3-5 day at the plate, with 2 Doubles, 3 runs scored, 1 RBI, and 4 huge Stolen Bases…Nice day for Greensboro’s Escotto, even in the loss…The Hoppers as a team, with a total of Eight(8) Stolen Bases on the afternoon…
The REMAX Revolution Play of the Game, was when Asheville sent in Hudson Leach as their closer, and he shut down the Greensboro Grasshoppers over the last two innings of the contest…Leach worked two frames, allowing 0 Runs, on 0 Hits, with 0 BBs/4 Ks…Hudson Leach would teach, it is very hard to reach vs. Leach…He did not allow the Hoppers to get anything going over the 8th and 9th innings…
Colby Langford for the Tourists allowed a walk, and picked up the victory for Asheville, after working his two
scoreless innings, with his time on the hill coming in the six and seventh innings…Langford and Leach, the L&L Express, would not give the Greensboro Grasshoppers any chances to score, and over the last four frames of the game, and those were the four frames that Leach and Langford were in the contest, that is where the Hoppers put four straight Goose Eggs up on the Don Tilley scoreboard…
The final was 12-10 Asheville, and with the two squads combining for 22 runs on 25 hits, this almost looked like a preseason exhibition game in some ways…We called it the “Last Man Standing Match”, with something along the lines of John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes(WrestleMania 41) going on at the ole ballyard on Sunday afternoon…
The Grasshoppers were killing it in the middle innings, posting 5 runs in the third, 2 in the fourth, and then 3 more runs in the fifth inning, and the Hoppers had taken a 10-6 lead, after five frames…Looked to many in attendance that this game was almost on ice, but it was 84 degrees, with just a slight breeze, and with the pollen in the air, everyone was almost ready to sneeze, when the A’ville Tourists brought all to our knees, in a Sunday afternoon post-church service prayer….
The score was Hoppers 10, Tourists 7, as we made our way to the Top of the Eighth Inning, and that is where the Tourists took off and made this a Winning Day…
We had the prayer, but the Tourists started putting the ball in the Air Again…
Here is the ledger from the fate of Inning Number Eight…And this had some fans ready to jump off of the ledge and into the Hyatt Hotel hedge….
The Ledger:
Top 8th for the Asheville Tourists….
Trevor Austin homers on a fly ball to left field.
ASH 8,GBO 10
Drew Vogel steals 2nd base. Tyler Whitaker scores. Throwing error by catcher Omar Alfonzo.
ASH 9,GBO 10
Cristian Gonzalez singles on a line drive to center fielder Lonnie White Jr. Drew Vogel scores.
ASH 10,GBO 10
Alejandro Nunez singles on a line drive to right fielder Shalin Polanco. Cristian Gonzalez scores. Garret Guillemette scores.
ASH 12,GBO 10…And with the Asheville pen kicking in, it was pretty much Game Over from there….
So, looking back over the fence, and hence that is where the ball pretty much was traveling, whence we were back in the early innings of this Three Hours and Sixteen Minutes game…Four Solo HRs to begin the game for Asheville, and the Tourists took that early 4-0 advantage…Hoppers did have those 10 runs in the middle innings and grabbed that 10-6 lead, but we all now know how this one ended up…Still stuck with the 12-10 final Asheville, on our brain…
One other Hoppers upbeat note from when they were coming up to the plate…Esmerlyn Valdez had a 3-5 day at the dish, and he drove in two runs, with his two-run homer going LONG GONE to left field, in the third inning…Really looking sharp was Escotto, but even the “Mighty Maikol” could not find a way on base vs. the Langford & Leach Express/L&L Express…Escotto struck out twice in his last two at-bats, facing Langford and Leach…
Will not be the most memorable game of the season, but the fans were treated to a barage of run-scoring and hits galore…Both teams with two errors each and that also let an extra base runner or two, have a chance to add to the “Afternoon Delight”….
Game Details:
Attendance-3,267
Time of Game-3:16
Game Time Temp-84 degrees
Up Next:Greensboro Grasshoppers off on Monday, and they head to Winston-Salem to meet the WS Dash for a Six-Game set beginning on Tuesday night….