Final from Friday night at First National Bank Field:
Greensboro Grasshoppers 10, Jersey BlueClaws 9
WP:Jaycob Deese(1-0)/LP:Ethan Chenault(2-2)
Hoppers’ Line-10-16-2
Claws’ Line- 9- 9-0
Hoppers(10-3)/BlueClaws(4-9)
The ninth inning Walk-Off single to right field, a bender of a hit at that, well that hit off of the bat of Javier Rivas, made the difference in this ballgame…The Walk-Off hit from Rivas scoring Duce Gourson from third, and the Greensboro Grasshoppers were in business, winning 10-9 over the former Lakewood Blueclaws, and now they are the Jersey Shore BlueClaws…Nice win for the Hoppers and a big win too, in front of a loud and excited crowd of 4,734 fans on this Easter Weekend, and the result really did make this a Good Friday…
This game found the ‘Grind Button’ early, as the game was only about two innings in after the one hour mark, and the got messy too, with Jersey Shore posting a total of seven runs over the first two innings, and at the end of the Top of the Second inning, JS led the Hoppers 7-0…But the Greensboro Grasshoppers would not let the JS BlueClaws run away from them completely, as the Hoppers made this 7-5 game at the end of two innings…
As the World Turns, and it was How the Game Turns in this one, as the Hoppers could not handle the prosperity, and even though the Hoppers would battle back time, and time-again, Jersey Shore still had a lead of 9-7 going to the seventh inning…That is when the Hoppers got their two-run Long Gone home run from Lonnie White Jr. to tie the contest at 9 a-piece…9-9, and this game was all locked up…In the eighth innning, with the score tied at 9-each, the Hoppers had two men on base, with two out, but the Hoppers could not get Shalin Polanco or Jesus Castillo in to score..
Since the Hopppers could not find a way to win the game in bottom of the eighth, they had to take their game to ninth inning, knowing that they had to find a run somewhere to get this game done, and like we said, they just needed that one run….
In that game-winning ninth inning, the Greensboro Grasshoppers got leadoff Double from pinch hitter Duce Gourson, and with Gourson on at second base, the next man up, PJ Hilson struck out…So with Gourson advancing to third base, and he got there by stealing the bag(10th SB of the year), and he didn’t draw a throw from the Jersey Shore catcher, Kehden Hettiger, and with Gourson safe at Third Base, that’s when Claws’ skipper Greg Brodzinski surveyed the situation, and he then decided to intentionally load the bases, putting Lonnie White Jr. at second base, and Omar Alfonzo at first base, after both received their IBBs…So now the intrigue is building and to make things a little more desperate, the next man up for the Hoppers, Shalin Polanco struck out, and now you got the bases FOG/Full of Grasshoppers, with Two Outs…Two gone, and Javier Rivas due up next and he was going 4-5, with a Grand Slam LONG GONE Home Run on the night…So why not have Javier Rivas do his best Javier Lopez impression and end this game, and that is exactly what he did, with a Walk-Off single to right field, scoring Gourson from third with the Game-Winner…
Hoppers Win, Hoppers Win, Hoppers Win Again, with the Game-Winning RBI from Rivas, and the Game-Winning Run scored by Gourson….
For the night, it was a LONG GONE home run kind of night for the Greensboro Grasshoppers and for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws too…Hopper Homers from Rivas, with his Grand Slam, from Lonnie White Jr. with his two-run shot, and from Esmerlyn Valdez, with his solo Home Run…For the BlueClaws you had Dylan Campbell with a Three-Run HR, and Bryan Ricon had a solo Home Run for the Claws…
On the Hoppers side, Javier Rivas was “The Man”, as he came up with the Game-Winning RBI, and he had the Grand Slam Home Run, plus overall Rivas went 5-6/HR/2 Runs/5 RBI…The four big RBI on the LONG GONE Slammer, and then the RBI on the Game-Winner, and that will earn him the REMAX Revolution Player of the Game and also the Play of the Day for both the Grand Slam, and his Walk-Off Winner…Some kind of night, for Javier Rivas…Solid night too at the plate for Lonnie White Jr., with his 3-5 night, showing a HR/Double/BB/2 Runs/3 RBI/SB…Plus Maikol Escotto went 3-5/2 Runs/2 SB…
Looking at Jersey Shore, they had Dylan Campbell looking for a chance to hit for the cycle, and he was not far off, he just missed The Cycle by a Double…Campbel had the HR, the Triple, and he had two singles…Campbell overall 4-5/HR/Double/5 RBI/2 Runs…This was the second 5 RBI night for Campbell this week, as he got five RBIs back on Tuesday too…The Claws walked 7 times and struck out 12 times as a team, while the Hoppers also walked 7 times, but the Hoppers went down by way of the K, 15 times in the contest…
Greensboro winning pitcher Jaycob Deese worked two innings, and he gave up 0 runs, on 1 hit, with 1 BB/2 Ks…Nothing fancy about the job Deese did, but it was efficient…Pretty much the story of the Greensboro Grasshoppers this season, see how far you can go, with what you have…So far, so good, in 2025 for the Greensboro Grasshoppers at First National Bank Field…
Game Details:
Attendance-4,734
Time of Game-3:35
Game Time Temp-78 degrees
Up Next:
Jersey Shore BlueClaws(5-8) at Greensboro Grasshoppers(9-4) Saturday night with the 6:30pm first pitch…Fireworks after the game on Saturday, there inside First National Bank Field…If you can’t make it to the game, you can listen in at CLICK HERE…You can also listen in while at the game, when you CLICK ON at the Hoppers site, and that would be your ticket to Listen Live to the games while also at the game….