Time might be running out in the First Half of the South Atlantic League, but the Greensboro Grasshoppers are still in the hunt for the Northern Division Title, even though the Hoppers fell for the Fourth Straight Game on Friday night, at Asheville…..
Final Score from Friday, in Asheville, N.C.:
Asheville Tourists/Snot Otters 11, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
(This is our Fred Anderson Toyota of Raleigh Game Report.)
WP:Parker Smith(3-3)/LP:Carlson Reed(3-3)
Tourists' Line-11-17-3 Hoppers' Line- 4- 8-2
Greensboro Grasshoppers see their record drop to (33-22), and the Asheville Tourists make it Four Straigth Wins over the Hoppers this week, and A’ville is now at (15-39) for the season…A’ville with the worst record in the league all season long, but they have owned the Grasshoppers at Asheville…A’ville out-scoring Greensboro, 45-32 this week…Hoppers still just that Game-and-a-Half back of the Frederick Keys(33-19), in the First Half of the SALLY League North…Hoppers and Keys, each with 33 wins, but the Grasshoppers with three more losses than the Keys, since the Keys have played three less games than Greensboro…
From Friday, and we go mainly by the numbers when we break down these road games, since we are HERE, and they are up THERE, and from Friday we see Five Errors between the two teams…Another number that reaches out and hits you, is the hits for A’ville, and the Tourists with 17 hits for the contest on Friday evening…The Tourists have scored double-digit runs on the Hoppers in every game this week, with the exception of Wednesday’s series-opener, and A’ville won that game, 8-4…
The leading hitter for the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Friday night was Murf Gray, who went 3-4/HR/2 Runs/1 RBI…And Gray’s Home Run was a Solo HR, and it came in the Sixth Inning of the ballgame…Wyatt Sanford was 2-4/Double/BB…Easton Carmichael goes 1-5, Jhonny Severino went 1-4, and to close out the Hoppers’ hitting, Carlos Caro was 1-3/BB/Run…
Asheville had Four Batters with Three Hits each, and they were, Jack Moss 3-5/HR/2 Runs/4 RBI…Mason Lytle 3-3/HR/Double/Run/3 RBI…Chase Call 3-5/2 Doubles/2 Runs/1 RBI…Kyle Walker 3-3/Double/BB/2 Runs…That is where most of the damage came from, from the A’ville lineup…
Last Friday night, the Hoppers’ starting pitcher Carlson Reed threw 7 Innings of Perfect Baseball at First National Bank Field, but this Friday night, it was Reed taking the Loss for the Hoppers, and Reed only went 2 2/3s Innings, and he gave up 6 Runs, on 10 Hits, with 1 BB/2 Ks…
The Winning Pitcher for the Asheville Tourists’, Parker Smith, worked 6 Innings from his starting role, and he allowed 4 Runs, on 5 Hits, with 2 BBs/5 Ks, and he gave up the Solo Home Run, to the Hoppers’ Murf Gray…For the night, the Hoppers pitching staff Walked just one A’ville batter, and they Struck Out Ten Tourists…
The Hoppers actually led this game, 2-1, at the end of 2 1/2 Innings, but in the Bottom of the Third Inning, the Tourists posted Five Runs to go out in front, 6-2, and that was pretty much ‘All She Wrote’, for the Greensboro Grasshoppers on this night…
Game Details:
Attendance-4,000
Time of Game-2:52
Game Time Temp-81 Degrees and Clear
Up Next:Greensboro Grasshoppers(33-22) at the Asheville Tourists/Snot Otters(15-39), on Saturday night at 6:05pm…..
***********Hoppers-Tourists Game Report from the Asheville Tourists’ website:***********
Snot Otters Pile Up 17 Hits in 11-4 Rout of Grasshoppers
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Asheville Snot Otters came out Friday night in their navy blue jerseys with bright green snot dripping down the shoulders and onto the numbers, and they played like a team that had something to prove. Seventeen hits, eleven runs, and a fourth straight win later, the Snot Otters had done exactly that.
Greensboro came in with a reputation for its starter. Carlos Reed had thrown seven perfect innings with seven strikeouts in his last outing against Hub City on May 29th. Friday night was a completely different story.
The game started as a back and forth affair. Chase Call doubled in the first to score Caden Powell, who beat the throw from left on a close play. Greensboro answered when Freuddy Batista’s errant throw trying to catch Murf Gray stealing allowed Gray to score, and Carlos Caro followed with an infield single to score Brian Sanchez. 2-1 Greensboro after one.
Parker Smith settled in on the mound and the offense got to work in the third. Justin Thomas Jr. slapped an opposite field single to score Walker and tie the game at two. Then Chase Call doubled off the wall for the second time on the night, putting Thomas on third. Jack Moss stepped up and cleared the bases with a double, pushing the lead to 4-2. Alejandro Nunez singled to put runners on the corners, Freuddy Batista followed with a single to load the bases, and Mason Lytle capped the inning with a two-run double. 6-2 Asheville. In the end it was five straight hits and seven in total.
Reliever Draven Zeigler came on with the bases loaded and struck out Walker to escape the jam, ending the Snot Otters’ scoring run. From there he was untouchable, retiring batters with six straight strikeouts across three innings before Lytle ended the streak with her home run in the fifth. His 390-foot solo home run to left was his first at HomeTrust Park.
From the second inning through the fifth, Smith retired ten straight batters without allowing a hit. A Wyatt Sanford double scored Shalin Polanco in the top of the fifth to make it 6-3, That Lytle home run made it 7-3. Murf Gray hit one back to dead center to make it 7-4, and Jhonny Severino nearly hit back-to-back shots, launching a first-pitch fly ball to deep center that Thomas ran down at the wall to end the inning.
Smith delivered a quality start, finishing six innings with five strikeouts and holding Greensboro to just two earned runs. Moss put an exclamation point on the sixth with a home run to right-center that bounced off the top of the wall, then ricocheted off a light pole before clearing the park. It scored two and pushed the lead to 9-4.
In the seventh, Lytle was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game one triple shy of the cycle. Nehomar Ochoa Jr. came in to pinch run on his day off, after jogging out from the clubhouse minutes before and doing his warmup stretches at first base before play resumed. Thomas singled to bring him home. Powell capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to score Walker. 11-4 Snot Otters.
Jackson Wells made his Asheville debut in relief of Smith, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Bryce Collins got the final two outs on a double play to close it out.
The individual performances were eye-popping across the board. Moss went 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs. Lytle was 3-for-3 with a home run, a double, and three RBIs before exiting. Walker reached base all five times he came to the plate, going 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Call had two doubles and scored twice.
Asheville has now won four straight and improves to 15-39. Greensboro falls to 33-22. The two teams meet again Saturday night at HomeTrust Park with a special jersey giveaway, the first 1,200 fans through the gates will receive an Asheville Tourists home jersey, presented by Asheville Regional Airport. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.