Frey, Farris Tag Team ‘Hoppers in Series Finale

ROME, Ga – The Emperors wrapped up their regular season home schedule with a 3-2 win over the Grasshoppers to earn a series split with the first-half champions of the North.

Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., with his single to left field in the bottom of the third inning, moved into third place all-time in career hits for Rome with 210, surpassing Ardley Jansen, brother of Kenley. Rome’s beloved center fielder is now just eight hit shy of sole possession of second place on that very same list.

In his high-A debut against the Emperors, Michael Kennedy, Pittsburgh’s no.15 prospect, issued a walk to Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. to open the bottom of the first inning. Kilpatrick, after advancing to second on a balk and being moved to third on a Drew Compton single, would score on an E.J. Exposito sacrifice fly to left.

Greensboro would pull even with Rome in the top of the second and go on to take the lead in the fourth thanks to a leadoff double from P.J. Hilson. Both runs for the ‘Hoppers came off Riley Frey who exited after five innings. Mitch Farris would come on in relief in the sixth and throw the final four innings, earning the win.

Rome’s two-run bottom of the sixth was fueled by a lead-off single from Exposito and walk to Stephen Paolini. A couple of groundballs on the infield and an error on Greensboro’s second baseman would allow two runs to cross and give the Emperors a 3-2 lead where it would stay through the ninth.

Rome heads to Hickory, North Carolina for six games against the Crawdads where they’ll finish the regular season. That series gets underway Tuesday at 7:00pm EDT. With Bowling Green owning a 5.5 game lead over the Greenville Drive and just six games left in the second half, it looks as though Bowling Green, Kentucky will play host to Game One of the South Atlantic League Divisional Series on September 10^th with the series coming to Rome on the 12^th.