Tagged: kevin cravey
Friday The 13th Proves Too Scary For Hagerstown; Hoppers win 7-2
The theme tonight was Halloween night. Being that it was Friday the 13th and the stadium is located right off Elm Street it had all the makings for a cheesy horror flick. And in some ways it was rather cheesy. You could catch pirates, clowns, pimps, and even waldo (If you could find him…) walking around and taking in the game. The names on the scoreboard were even put to a cool halloween background .
Jim Scott, pictured above, was definitely in rare form today. He was dressed as Superfly or quite simply, a pimp.
Looks like Spaz found Waldo!
Austin Brice was the starting pitcher on the mound tonight. He would throw 5 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits and 5 strikeouts. He would be relieved by Kevin Cravey who pitched one inning and allowed 1 hit. Daniel Oliver would then come in to pitch 2 innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 strikeouts. Next up would walk Greg Nappo who would throw 1 inning and three straight strikeouts for a combined total of 10 strikeouts. That’s a lot of K’s on the board for Don Moore and his crew at the “JETS PIZZA K ZONE”.
The game was tied at zero until the bottom of the fourth inning when an inning full of errors happened. The Hoppers would come in to score 6 runs that inning. Batters to cross the plate were Aaron Senne, Ryan Reiger, James Wooster, Tony Caldwell, Austin Nola, and Terrence Dayleg.
With all the costumes and scary figures around tonight I guess Friday the 13th was just too scary for Hagerstown. Hagerstown would never lead in this one. Hoppers take the win easily 7-2. With tonights win the Hoppers move to 8-14 in the second half and only 6 games back! The Hoppers are back in action tomorrow night facing the Kannapolis Intimidators. And as always… IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A HOPPER!!
-jordan
(Note: All players names are linked to their MILB profile so you can keep up with all your favorite Hoppers!)
Click here for Box Score and Full Recap of tonights game.
Remember, you can click on any of the pictures in the post to embiggen them. Check out the photo album on Facebook for all the pictures. Join the conversation by leaving a comment — what are you thinking?
Good News/Bad News as Suns Down Hoppers Tonight
When I left the house tonight, I honestly thought the game would be rained out, maybe even a delay or two. However, not even a drop of rain fell during the three hour affair in Greensboro. The weather remained dreary and humid with an on field temperature of 86 degrees.
You could say tonights game was a GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS deal.
Good News: Rand Smith had three hits on five at bats. Two which occurred in both the eighth and ninth inning while trying to start a rally.
Bad News: Josh Adams, Ryan Goetz, and James Wooster were each held to only one hit at five at bats
Good News: Shortstop Terrence Dayleg and relief pitcher Kevin Cravey will be activated back to the roster. Dayleg is the defensive anchor of the infield and Cravey will bolster the bullpen.
Bad News: To make room, reliever and 2011 SAL Championship pitcher, Chris Shafer will rejoin Jupiter and infielder Yeison Hernandez will return to Jamestown.
Good News: Brent Keys and Austin Barnes are only looking at a matter of days till they will be activated from the DL.
Bad News: With tonights loss, the Hoppers dropped to 6-13 and are currently 8 games behind the first place Hickory Crawdads
Bill Hass had the privilege of speaking to Manager Dave Berg tonight and captured Berg’s opinion in the latest Bill On Baseball entry:
“It will be a big difference,” manager David Berg said of getting players back. “The first half of the season we were healthy. I don’t know if we had a position player on the DL. The second half has not been kind to us in that regard. Now we’re adding the guys who got us to where we were.”
And with those additions back to the roster and the acquisition of Austin Nola I definitely think we’ll be back to where we were in no time at all! So with all that said, IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A HOPPER!
-jordan
Click for box score and full recap of tonights game. As well as, all names and teams have been linked to their milb profiles so you can keep up with all your favorite players! You can also check out Bill Hass’ Official Blog by clicking here
Senne “In The City” Goes 4-4, Not Enough To Take Care Of Crawdads
Between the threat of thunderstorms, a hundred degree heat, and the holiday weekend the stands sat a little empty today. If they had been there they would have witnessed Aaron Senne hit a perfect game at four hits and four at bats. They would also have witnessed Wooster’s superman catch over the Mercedes sign in midfield for the 3rd out in the 9th. Had that hit not been caught out of the sky the game would have been over in nine, with the Hickory Crawdads on top.
Aaron Senne had a phenomenal game today with four hits at four at bats. A Ryan Goetz homer out to right field looked like it made a u-turn at the sun, before coming back down. John Shultz had a good day as well, having 3 hits on 6 at bats and sliding in to score a run in the second. Between Ryan Goetz homer in the first and Shultz score in the second, the Hoppers would not be able to mount anything for another 10 innings. The Hoppers would go down 4-2 to the Hickory Crawdads.
Starting pitcher on the mound today was Jose Urena. He would sling six innings, allow five hits and 3 strikeouts. He would be relieved by Daniel Oliver who would pitch two innings, allow no hits and two strikeouts. Greg Nappo would start out the ninth inning and pitch three innings, allowing one hit and three strikeouts. Losing pitcher on the day was Chris Shafer. He allowed four hits, no strikeouts, and the two winning runs.
With the loss today the Hoppers drop to 51-30 overall and 5-6 in the second half. The Hoppers are still only 3 games back courtesy of some other losses around the league this week. The Hoppers will be back at home tomorrow night facing the first place Hickory Crawdads. Hope to see you out there, and remember, WIN OR LOSE, IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A HOPPER!
-jordan
(Photo Courtesy of Don Moore)
First no hitter of the season belongs to Greensboro!
Yep, you read that right! First no hitter of the minor league season belongs to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Jose Fernandez pitched 6 straight innings allowing NO HITS. He was relieved by Greg Nappo, who allowed NO HITS. Finally to close out the game was Kevin Cravey, allowing NO HITS! Hoppers win tonight over the Hickory Crawdads by a score of 6-0. This win placed them alone at the top of the standings in first place. This win also improves the Hoppers to 13-5 on the year! Aaron Senne slammed a home run almost all the way back to Greensboro on a solo run home run in the 2nd inning for the first run of the game. The Hoppers crossing home plate tonight were Brent Keys, Ryan Rieger, Aaron Senne, James Wooster, Wilfredo Gimenez, and Austin Barnes! Way to go Hoppers! Since it was an away game I was not in attendance tonight, but thank you to the Radio Broadcasters at Greensboro Sports for keeping me informed on the game! As always, I echo the sentiment, IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A HOPPER!
-jordan
06/13/2011 – GSO Grasshoppers v WVA Power (Game 2)
I missed Game 1 against the West Virginia Power, and I’m glad I did, as we took a whomping. I had a church obligation that ran smack dab in the middle of the game, so I skipped it. I did make a brief appearance at the park since the giveaway was the team baseball card set, so I went in the park long enough to pick up a set and buy a few bags of Taylor Made Hot and Sweet Kettle Corn. Seriously, the regular kettle corn is great, but the hot and sweet is amazing. Pat mixes hot sauce in the corn, which gives it a beautiful pinkish color. And the spice is awesome. It’s hot enough that you notice, and it blends well with the sweet. Definitely the best concession in the ballpark.
Anyway, enough about Game 1. The less said, the better. If you’re really curious, check out the official box score and/or game recap.
Game 2, however, was an entirely different story. The theme of this story was Kevin Winters, pitching seven beautiful innings of one-hit baseball. In addition to the single hit he gave up, he issued one walk and seven strikeouts. His performance was notable enough to be featured in an MiLB article. I’ll go ahead and apologize for breaking up his no-hitter in the fourth. After three perfect innings, I tweeted the following: “#GreensboroGrasshoppers RHP Kyle Winters is pitching very efficiently after so far. It’s beautiful. After 3: @HoppinFun 3, @wv_power 0.” I made sure not to say “perfect” or “no-hitter,” but I suppose “efficiently” and “beautiful” were enough to anger the superstitious gods of the diamond — Kyle issued a walk to the very next batter he faced, destroying the chance for perfection. Power hitter Mel Rojas, Jr. reached on a single in the fifth, breaking up the no-hitter.
So, Kyle, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful what I tweet next time.
Those two batters aside, Winters was efficient. He faced a total of 22 batters, striking 7 of them out — including the final four batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings. The rest of the outs were fairly evenly spit between ground outs and fly balls, and all of them were easily playable. I loved it.
I snapped a few pitchers of Kyle warming up between innings. I’ve been using a compact camera this year, and it’s just not good for getting pictures of the action on the field. I think I might have to start bringing the DSLR to the park again, like I did last year. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Kyle pitching:
Kyle Winters warming up
Kyle Winters warming up
Kyle Winters warming up
Offensively, the Hoppers were looking good tonight, too. Mark Canha added another home run to his arsenal. Noah Perio and Marcell Ozuna both hit a double. It made for a great day to be a Hoppers Fan at the park. Another notable defensive act was the final out of the game, when Danny Black made an amazing running, jumping catch. Great way to put a cap on such a great game.
Before the game started, I headed over to the autograph table to see who was signing today, and to get my first autograph on this year’s baseball cards. Pitcher Kevin Cravey was signing, and it turns out that he’s not in the card set, because he wasn’t on the team when the cards were printed. He was assigned to Greensboro from the Jammers on June 6, and was placed on the Temporary Inactive list on June 9. The quick internet research I’ve done on him indicates he has a good arm, so I’ll be excited to set him pitch once the team decides to put him on the Active Roster. Anyway, I had a nice short chat with him and got him to autograph one of the BP balls I’ve collected.
Here he is sitting at the autograph table:
Kevin Cravey
And here’s the baseball he autographed for me:
Kevin Cravey Autograph
Tonight was “Bark In The Park” night, my least favorite promotion. I do like that they keep the dogs over in Natty’s Hill, so at least they’re not all over the park all night. For those of you who love being able to bring your dog out to the park, I’m happy for you. Just be sure to stay over on Natty’s Hill, so I don’t have to worry about stepping on your little puppy or getting tripped up in a leash when I go to get a drink during the game. Here’s a picture of the pre-game dog parade:
Bark In The Park Parade
At the end of the night, the Hoppers dominated the Power with a 5-0 one-hit win. He’s the recap and official box score.
Here’s how I had it, which seems to match the official version of the events:
Scorecard: GSO v WVA Game 2 (6/13/2011) - Hoppers: 5, Power: 0
As always, for any of the pictures in this blog post, you can click on them to make them bigger. Check out the photo album on Facebook for all the pictures.
See ya at the ballpark!
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