Hoppers win, return for last homestand at .500

Ernny Ordoñez hits two home runs to power hot Hoppers to win at Greenville

Greensboro Grasshoppers slugger Ernny Ordoñez signs an autograph for a young fan. Ordoñez hit two home runs in the series finale at Greenville. (Kaylen Ayres/contributed photo)

By Jeff Mills

August 29, 2022

GREENVILLE, S.C. ― Ernny Ordonez hit two solo home runs and right-hander Domingo Gonzalez picked up his team-high eighth win of the season, leading the Greensboro Grasshoppers to a 5-3 victory over the Greenville Drive at Fluor Field on Sunday afternoon. The Hoppers won five games in the series at

GREENVILLE, S.C. ― Ernny Ordonez hit two solo home runs and right-hander Domingo Gonzalez picked up his team-high eighth win of the season, leading the Greensboro Grasshoppers to a 5-3 victory over the Greenville Drive at Fluor Field on Sunday afternoon.

The Hoppers won five games in the series at Greenville, and they’ve won seven of their last nine on the road trip to get back to .500 in the second half of the South Atlantic League season.

Greensboro (53-64) comes home 26-26 in the second half and trails first-place Hudson Valley by 5½ games in the North Division standings with just 12 games left in the regular season. The division-leading Renegades have won five straight and eight of their last 10.

Ordoñez went 2-for-4, and he led off the top of the seventh inning with a blast off losing pitcher Maceo Campbell (0-2) that sailed over the fence in left-center field to break a 1-1 tie. Claudio Finol followed with a walk, and Mike Jarvis greeted reliever Jordan DiValerio with a two-run home run to center field.

Ordoñez hit his 14th home run of the season in the eighth inning to push the lead to 5-1.

Jacob Gonzalez went 1-for-5 with an RBI, and both Hudson Headand Abrahan Gutierrez hit doubles for the Hoppers.

Domingo Gonzalez (8-3) pitched the final 4⅓ innings to pick up the win in his 11th relief appearance in 26 games. His eight wins rank fifth in the Sally League.

NOTES

With a 5-4 victory in Friday night’s game, Greensboro improved to 20-17 in one-run games this season.
Right-hander Jared Jones, a 20-year-old rated by MLB Pipeline as the No. 10 prospect in Pittsburgh’s farm system, started the game and didn’t allow an earned run in 4⅔ innings. He struck out five but was lifted after throwing 77 pitches as the Pirates manage his workload. Jones is 5-6 with a 4.63 ERA in league-high 24 starts, and he ranks second in the Sally League with 132 strikeouts in a league-high 114⅔ innings.
The Hoppers open their final homestand of the season Tuesday, and it’s the final installment of this summer’s “Battle of I-40” rivalry against the Winston-Salem Dash. The season series is tied 9-9, but the Hoppers have outscored the Dash 121-97 and have won five of the last seven games.

In his career at the News & Record, journalist Jeff Mills won 10 national and 12 state writing awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Society for Features Journalism, and the N.C. Press Association.