Castano spearheads shutout of Shorebirds

GREENSBORO, N.C. (June 29, 2018) -- Daniel Castano struck out eight batters over 6.0 scoreless innings to lead the Grasshoppers to a shutout victory over the Delmarva Shorebirds, 1-0, on Friday night in front of 7,009 fans at First National Bank Field. Greensboro (39-38) matched its season high with 13 total strikeouts from three pitchers as the Hoppers secured their sixth shutout of the season.
Castano (1-0) earned the win in his Grasshoppers debut. The left-hander, who opened the season with Class A-Advanced Jupiter and made a pair of rehab appearances with the rookie-level GCL Marlins, limited Delmarva to four hits and no walks while setting a new season-high in strikeouts with eight.
Travis Neubeck tossed a clean seventh, striking out two in a perfect inning. Vincenzo Aiello faced on over the minimum in the eighth and ninth, fanning three batters en route to the save (5).
Delmarva starting pitcher Matthias Dietz (6-2) took the hard-luck loss, allowing a run on three hits while striking out three and walking two over 4 and 2/3 innings.
Greensboro scored the game's lone run in a wacky bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, Micah Brown lifted a pop up toward third base where Shorebirds shortstop Mason McCoy and third baseman Branden Becker miscommunicated, allowing the ball to drop between them for a double. Brown the swiped third base, his eighth stolen base of the season, putting the preassure on Dietz. Following a Harrison DiNicola walk, Michael Hernandez dropped a squeeze bunt down the first base line and raced to the bag for an RBI-infield single, scoring Brown for a 1-0 lead.
The game featured nine total hits and lasted two hours and 15 minutes. Greensboro has now fanned 13 batters in a game four times this season, last coming also against the Shorebirds on June 5 at Delmarva. Friday's game also marked the 14th time this season that Hoppers pitchers did not walk a batter.
Greensboro hits the road for a 4-game series at Hickory starting on Saturday before returning to First National Bank Field on Wednesday, July 4 for a 3-game home stand against the Lakewood BlueClaws, beginning with an Independence Day fireworks spectacular. A limited number of tickets are still available for the Fourth of July online at gsohoppers.com.