Courtesy of RE/MAX Revolution, the Top Real Estate Sales Team in the Triad…..
Final from Saturday night, at Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C.:
Greenville Drive 8, Greensboro Grasshoppers 7
WP:Nate Tellier(5-0)/LP:Santiago Florez(4-2)/SV:Felix Cepeda(3)
Drive- 8-12-2 Hoppers-7- 8-2
Greensboro Grasshoppers(56-48)
Greenville Drive(55-52)
Here’s the take from our up top headliner:Hoppers with many MORE homers, showing Sightler with two HR’s, Bowen with #22 and Johnson with his first homer as a Hopper(But, Greenville Drive find a way to Win, 8-7)…That is how it was going on Saturday night, as the Grasshoppers fall to the Greenville Drive…
Josiah Sightler, a Lexington, S.C. native with two home runs on Saturday night, at Greenville, S.C. A three-run homer for Sightler and a solo shot for Josiah(4 RBI)…All back in his home state of South Cackalacky for Sightler…But, not enough for the “W”…..Jase Bowen with his 22nd HR of the 2023 season, and Bowen runs his RBI total to 80 for the year…But, not enough for the “W”…Termarr Johnson with his first homer as a member of the Greensboro Grasshoppers…But, not enough for the “W”…..Jack Brannigan had his consecutive homers per game streak snapped at five straight games, with Brannigan going LONG…So, tonight, not enough for the “W”…
Six of the Hoppers seven runs were produced by the Hopper Homers…The other run came from an RBI, by who??? Uh, Jack Brannigan, who was finding other ways to contribute…
From the top to the bottom, the Hoppers rundown goes Sammy Siani 1-5 from the leadoff spot in the batting order…Jase Bowen was going 2-3/HR/BB/2 Runs/RBI…Jack Brannigan 1-4/Run/RBI…Josiah Sightler 2-5/2 HR/2 Runs/4 RBI…Termarr Johnson 1-5/HR/Run/RBI…Nick Cimillo 0-3/2 BB’s…Shawn Ross 0-3/2 BB’s…Luke Brown 1-4…Brenden Dixon 0-2/2 BB’s/Run…
As you can see, plenty of Greensboro Grasshoppers offense, but lacking somewhat on the defense, and those two errors can hurt you, one way or another…The Hoppers drew 7 walks, but struck out 15 times, while the Drive were also walking 7 times, but they only went down by way of the K, 10 times…The game took on some crazy swings, with many a twist and turn, as we saw the Grasshoppers take a 3-0 lead at the end of the first inning…Greensboro led 4-0, after an inning and a-half…
Going to the bottom of the seventh inning, the Greensboro Grasshoppers led the Greenville Drive, 7-3…But things were just beginning/big inning for the Greenville Drive, as the Drive came alive, and posted 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning, and from there, the Drive go on to win this game, 8-7…Greenville got a boost on a throwing error by the Hoppers’ second baseman Johnson, there in the bottom of the seventh frame…
The Greenville Drive got a nice boost in this game from Kernersville, N.C. native Kier Meredith, out of Glenn High School there in Kernersville, and Meredith also a former Clemson Tiger…A Tiger, a Glenn Bobcat, and now Meredith with the Red Sox organization, and on Saturday night for the Drive, Kier Meredith goes 2-4/Run/RBI…Drive DH Kyle Teel went 3-4/BB/2 Runs…Greenville’s Alex Erro was 1-3/Run/3 RBI…And as we were looking over the game box score, we noticed that name again, Kier Meredith, and we said to ourself, we know that name, we know that kid, he is local, and YES he was/is…
Big eye-opener on this game, we found during our postgame study, and it was interesting, was that our lead headline was all of those Hopper Homers, and no “W”/win…But, in review of the Greenville Drive, they had guys like Erro going 1-3, and driving in 3 runs, but as a whole, the Greenville Drive had not one single Extra-Base Hit in this contest…They had their fare share of 12 singles, but not one Extra-Base Hit…No Doubles, No Triples, and No Homers…Getting it done with “Small Ball”, the Greenville Drive…
The Grasshoppers’ pitchers had their share of misfortune, and it hit losing pitcher Santiago Florez, like a smack in the face…Florez, from the bullpen, could not finish out an inning, as he gave up 3 runs, on 3 hits, with a BB, and 0 K’s…The Hoppers starter Thomas Harrington lasted five innings, but Harrington allowed 3 runs, on 6 hits, with 3 BB’s, and 6 K’s…Harrington left the ballgame as Winner, but by the time the night was over, the Hoppers ended up taking the Loss….Not much mound luck for GSO pitcher Yunior Thibo either, as Thibo lasted a third of an inning, and his line goes, 2 runs, on 1 hit, with a BB and 0 K…Dante Mendoza and Jack Carey played survival baseball during their time on the hill, on Saturday night, but as a whole, the Hoppers late-game struggles cost the club, and Florez with the Blown Save and the Loss, ends up with a pretty rough ride, on Saturday evening in Greenville, S.C.
Here are those Game Details for you:
Attendance-5,010
Time of Game-2:55 with a 49 minute delay…
Game Time Temp-77 degrees, with the First Pitch coming in at 7:54pm…
Up Next:
Greensboro Grasshoppers(56-48) at Greenville Drive(55-52) on Sunday afternoon at 3:05pm, at Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C.
from www.milb.com/greenville
Drive pull six-run comeback to stun ‘Hoppers, 8-7
Drive score five in the seventh enroute to erase 7-2 deficit
The Greenville Drive (19-22, 55-52) strung together five runs in the seventh, capped off by a Roman Anthony two-RBI base knock, to complete a six-run comeback and stun the Greensboro Grasshoppers (20-20, 56-48), 8-7.
Collectively, the ‘Hoppers added four homers on the night, bringing their series total to 17, but it wouldn’t matter in the end as Greenville found a spark they’d been lacking in two of their three losses in the series. Though in the early going it seemed like another night destined to go in Greensboro’s favor as the ‘Hoppers used a barrage of homers to build an early lead on Greenville.
Josiah Sightler continued his hard-hitting ways Saturday night, launching a three-run shot in the top of the first off Drive starter Angel Bastardo giving the ‘Hoppers an early 3-0 lead. They’d build on the lead consistently through the next four innings, scoring one run in each inning until the Drive finally stopped the bleeding in the sixth.
Jase Bowen clubbed his 22nd homer of the year in the second, Sightler launched his second homer of the night in the third, Jack Brannigan chipped in a sacrifice-fly in the fourth and Termarr Johnson added his first homer of the year in the fifth to cap the ‘Hoppers scoring.
Bastardo exited the night with one out in the fifth finishing his night allowing seven runs on six hits while walking five and striking out seven. His seven strikeouts on the night moved him to second all-time on the Drive’s single season strikeout list for pitchers with 139. Jonathan Diaz, who pitched for the Drive from 2017-18 holds the record with 147, which he set during the 2018 season.
The game seemed to be well in hand for the ‘Hoppers as the action flipped to the bottom of the fifth, as the Drive found themselves down 7-2, with the Drives runs coming via an Alex Erro sac-fly and an Eduardo Lopez bases-loaded walk. The Drive cut the deficit to just four in the bottom of the fifth on a Gonzalez sac-fly that scored Teel.
Nate Tellier, who has struggled as of late, found a groove in his relief outing, shutting down the ‘Hoppers over 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out four. The Drive would find momentum as well in the seventh getting runners on second and third with one out for Erro. Erro slapped a two-RBI single past second base, cutting the lead to just two. Two batters later, Kier Meredith delivered an RBI-single that ricocheted off the pitcher into center field to cut the lead to just one. He’d steal second, setting up Roman Anthony with two runners in scoring position. Anthony would deliver his heroics from there, putting the Drive up for good.
Felix Cepeda picked up a two-inning save for the Drive, that included four strikeouts, finishing the Drive’s comeback effort.
The Greenville Drive (Boston Red Sox) return to action Sunday, August 13 at 3:05 p.m. for the finale of the six-game series with the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Pittsburgh Pirates). Greensboro currently leads the series, 3-2. Greenville can earn a split of the series with a win tomorrow.