Extras Unkind but Tourists Keep Fighting

GREENSBORO- The Asheville Tourists lost for the eighth time of their current road trip on Saturday night, 4-3 in extra innings to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Even though the results this road trip have been disappointing for the Tourists, Asheville continues to put up a battle night in and night out.

The Tourists erased an early 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead; however, the Grasshoppers managed to tie the game up 3-3 and steal a victory in extras in front of their home crowd.

Brayan de Paula pitched the first four innings for Asheville and did a nice job despite being erratic at times. De Paula struck out six and surrendered only two hits. The left-hander walked two and threw three wild pitches which led to the 2-0 Greensboro lead.

Asheville’s offense battled back with a run in the top of the fourth on Deury Carrasco’s RBI single to centerfield. Cesar Salazar’s RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth tied the game at two. The Tourists then went to reliever Matt Ruppenthal and the right-hander churned out five strong innings.

The Tourists took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh on another sacrifice fly by Salazar. The Grasshoppers used a sacrifice fly of their own to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. Ruppenthal made sure Greensboro would not walk off in the bottom of the ninth by striking out Aaron Shackelford with the bases loaded.

In the top of the tenth, the Tourists loaded the bases with two outs but were unable to come up with the big hit. The Grasshoppers hit an RBI double in the bottom of the tenth to win the game. Asheville finished with only three hits on the night but they worked a season-high ten walks.

Even though Asheville has lost four out of five to Greensboro, the Tourists pitching staff has held the Grasshoppers to single-digit hits in all five games of the series. They have also struck out double-digit Greensboro hitters in every game this series.

The Tourists will attempt to snatch the series finale on Sunday afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 2:00pm ET.