Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Hoppers Season Opener


It felt more like the start of football season than baseball, and the night ended with a football-like score.

The Lake County Captains beat the Greensboro Grasshoppers 14-8.

People were literally jumping out of planes to see tonight’s season opener at First Horizon Park.

The Black Daggers, a special operations unit from Fort Bragg, kicked off the night parachuting into center field.

It was the first inning jitters for the Hoppers. The captains scored three easy runs, made off of two home runs.

Infielder Jared Goedert of the Captains continued his homerun streak hitting one in the first and another at the top of the fourth. Goedert now has three home runs for the season-- he hit his first this past Saturday against West Virginia.

John Raynor was the first Hopper to get on base at the bottom of the fourth and stole second the next play.

It also took to the fourth for the Hoppers to get on the board, Scott Cousins hit deep into the left field batting Raynor in for the score.

Hoppers scored twice in the fourth with another long ball to left and a sacrifice hit to first.

At the bottom of the fifth Greensboro had two men in scoring position off of two consecutive stolen bases, a walk loaded bases with only one out.

A ground ball hugging the right field foul line hit by Christ Coglan brought in three runs for the Hoppers putting them in the lead for the first and only time tonight. The Hoppers ended the inning with a four run lead over the Captains.

But, by the end of the sixth, Lake County was back in the lead by four runs. The Captains scored seven runs on six hits.

Pitching was the story of the night; the Hoppers went deep into their line up calling out four pitchers.

6,229 people braved the cold temperatures. By the end of the game, the temperature dipped into the low 40s.

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