Grasshoppers Hand Tourists Another Road Loss

GREENSBORO- The Asheville Tourists fell behind early on Wednesday afternoon and suffered a 5-2 loss to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. It is the sixth loss through eight games of the current road trip and the 20th loss in 26 road games this season. Asheville was held to only three hits in the game while Greensboro had three hits leave the yard.

The Grasshoppers actually held the Tourists without a hit until the sixth inning. Already, trailing 5-0, Cody Orr broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single. Matt Barefoot drove in Orr with a single that not only put the Tourists on the board, but extended his reach base streak to 20 straight games. Freudis Nova connected with a solo Home Run in the seventh, his third of the season, to cap the offensive output.

Tyler Brown surrendered the three Greensboro Home Runs; however, they were all solo shots. Brown chewed up 5.1 innings and struck out six. The Grasshoppers also used an RBI triple and a Tourists throwing error to account for their remaining two runs.

Jonathan Sprinkle put together his best outing of the season. Sprinkle threw 2.2 scoreless innings out of Asheville’s bullpen and struck out a season-high six. Greensboro’s starting pitcher, Michael Burrows, struck out ten Tourists in his 5.1 innings of work; part of 15 total strikeouts recorded by the Grasshoppers’ pitching staff.

Deury Carrasco and Zach Biermann both worked a pair of walks in the game. Wilyer Abreu was kept off the basepaths for the first time since June 12th; snapping an 18-game reach base streak in the process.

Asheville will attempt to secure their first win of the series on Thursday night in Greensboro. The first pitch is set for 6:30pm.