West Virginia Power Defeat Greensboro Grasshoppers 5-4 - A, South Atlantic League

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Greensboro, NC – The West Virginia Power had 12 hits at NewBridge Bank Park on Friday night, 11 of those were singles and they escaped with their second consecutive one-run victory, defeating the Greensboro Grasshoppers 5-4.   

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Bryan Petersen gave Greensboro their only lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning.  West Virginia took advantage of two throwing errors with two outs to score three times in the third.  With two on and two out, Steffan Wilson hit a groundball to shortstop Ozzie Martinez and Martinez made a wild throw to first base which allowed Eric Farris to score the tying run.  Zelous Wheeler followed with an RBI single to right, scoring Jonathan Lucroy and on the play Martinez cut-off the throw from right field and tried to throw behind Wheeler at first base but he made another errant throw which plated Wilson.   

West Virginia scored twice on five hits in the fourth.  Curt Rindal doubled to begin the inning, recording West Virginia’s only extra-base hit of the game.  Rindal scored on Lee Haydel’s base-hit and Matt Cline’s sacrifice fly plated Eric Fryer later in the inning.  Amaury Rivas issued back-to-back one out walks in the sixth inning to load the bases before he was replaced by Corey Frerichs who fanned the next two batters to end the inning.  Mike Stanton hit a three run homer with two outs in the eighth to pull the Grasshoppers within one before Frerichs retired the next four batters to end the ballgame.   

Rivas (4-1) allowed just one run on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five and a third in a winning effort.  Frerichs (2) earned the save after surrendering three runs on four hits over three and two-thirds while striking out seven batters.  Stu Alexander (4-5) suffered the loss, giving up five runs on ten hits over three and two-thirds.     

The Power improved to 21-32 with the win and the Grasshoppers fell to 28-26 with the loss.  The victory improved West Virginia’s record to 5-9 in one-run games.  West Virginia is now 18-7 all time at NewBridge Bank Park.  Every Power player reached safely.  Farris, Fryer and Lucroy all hit safely more than once.  Farris paced the Power with a 3-for-5 performance.  Lucroy extended his hitting streak to five games and has recorded four straight multi-hit games.  

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