HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – The Greensboro Grasshoppers hopped into the playoffs by winning 2-1 on Monday afternoon over the Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium.
James Nelson had two hits and Eric Gutierrez hit his seventh home run of the season to spark Greensboro, which finished 75-61 overall and 38-30 in the second half to win a South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division title.
CRAWDADS’ BEST YEARS
Hickory’s best seasons by wins since minor league baseball returned to Hickory in 1993:
Record Year
86-54 1994
85-55 2004
83-56 2002
82-54 2003
81-57 2015
The Grasshoppers and West Virginia (39-31) — a 3-2 winner on Monday over Delmarva, (Md.) — tied for the Northern Division crown but Greensboro won the title via winning percentage (.559 to .557). Greensboro had two rained out games that were not made up.
Hickory went 37-33 in the second half to end up two games out of first place and a half-game up on Hagerstown (Md.) for third place in the second half.
The Crawdads finished their 25th anniversary season at 64-76 overall, their fewest wins since 2009 (63-76). They had won at least 74 games in each of the previous seven seasons.
Hickory, the SAL champion in 2002, 2004 and 2015, was battling to win a playoff spot for the 11th time in franchise history.
The SAL playoffs will feature first-half winner Kannapolis against Greensboro in the Northern Division opening best-of-3 series.
The Southern Division best-of-3 series will pit Greenville (S.C.), the first-half winner, against Charleston (S.C.).
Monday’s game had a 1 p.m. start and 2,150 saw Greensboro erase an early Hickory lead with a run in the fifth inning and another in the sixth inning.
Hickory, which had nine hits, scored in the second inning when Charles Leblanc singled and Andretty Cordero’s first triple of the season scored Leblanc.
Cordero and Leody Taveras each had two hits for the Crawdads.
The Grasshoppers pulled even with a run in the fifth inning. Jarrett Rindfleisch and Johnny Satos walked back-to-back and moved up on Rony Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt, and the run scored on a groundball out by Luis Pintor.
In the sixth inning, Gutierrez hit a home run, a solo shot, with one out.
Greensboro capped a one-run victory in the ninth inning with reliever Michael Mertz gaining his fourth save of the year.
After Cordero flew out in the ninth inning, Brendon Davis singled. Pinch-hitter Franklin Rollin popped out in foul territory at first base before Eric Jenkins singled. The game and season ended when Blaine Prescott grounded out.
Greensboro, which had seven hits, won despite going 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Dustin Beggs (10-6), the Grasshoppers’ starting pitcher, got a win after pitching five innings. He gave up seven hits, one run (earned), walked four and struck out four.
Parker Sanburn (0-1) took the loss for Hickory, pitching three innings. He gave up four hits, a run (earned) with one walk and three strikeouts after relieving starter Michael Matuella, who went five innings and gave up two hits, a run (earned) with five walks and two strikeouts.
For Monday’s boxscore, click on the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_09_04_gboafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448