On to Asheville

By Bill on Baseball

July 23, 2011

The Hoppers finished the Hickory series Friday with a 12–9 win, giving them two out of three against the top team in the Northern Division.

It was a nice rebound from the 3-game sweep they suffered to end the last home stand. The Asheville Tourists provided the broom for that series, and that’s where the Hoppers head next. They start a four-game series at McCormick Field tonight.

Now 14–14 in the second half, the Hoppers are four games behind Hickory. But they’re also behind Kannapolis, Hagerstown and Lakewood. Everyone is bunched pretty closely, but that’s a lot of teams to climb over and the Hoppers need to start moving up soon.

Noah Perio went 2-for-6 Friday, including his second home run of the season, and is now hitting .310. Christian Yelich had two hits and is at .296. J.T. Realmuto rapped out three hits to lift his average to .285. Mark Canha hit his 17th home run.

The Hoppers scored eight runs in the fourth inning to stake Gregory Nappo to an 11–3 lead. Hickory rallied against middle relievers Chris Shafer and Mike Ojala, but the Hoppers slammed the door with Grant Dayton in the eighth and Michael Brady in the ninth. Brady earned his 13th save and lowered his ERA to 0.69.

ROSTER MOVE: CF Isaac Galloway was put on the disabled list with a strained left oblique. Taking his place is Rand Smith, a familiar name. Smith played at Appalachian and is a native of Bolivia, a small town on the North Carolina coast. He was with the Hoppers last season, hitting .223 with five homers, 37 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in 31 attempts. He was injured the first half of this season and then assigned to Jamestown, where he hit .236 with three homers and nine RBIs in 24 games. The parent Florida Marlins could have sent the Hoppers Brent Keys, who began the season here and is hitting .375 in Jamestown. But Keys is a left-handed hitter and seven of the 13 position players on the Hoppers roster hit left-handed. Smith hits right-handed, as does Galloway.