Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Quinn Priester Leads High-A to Playoff Victory

Friday night Pittsburgh Pirates minor league affiliates secured a pair of postseason victories, including Quinn Priester and High-A Greensboro

Friday was a successful night for minor league affiliates of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Low-A Bradenton Marauders defeated the Tampa Tarpons 11-3 to complete a series sweep and secure a Low-A Southeastern League Championship.

Also at the Single-A level, the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers secured a 4-2 victory over the Bowling Green Hot Rods. With this win the Grasshoppers evened their High-A East Championship series at a game each.

Leading the way for the Grasshoppers on Friday night was arguably the Pittsburgh Pirates top pitching prospects – righty Quinn Priester. Priester pitched 5 innings in the victory, limiting the Hot Rods to just 1 run on 3 hits. The talented righty walked a pair of batters and struck out 7.

This outing saw Priester pick up where he left off at in the regular season when he pitched to the tune of a 3.04 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 9.6% walk rate, 24.1% strikeout rate and a 0.74 HR/9. These results came in 97.2 innings pitched across 20 starts.

Priester set the tone in the 4-2 Grasshopper victory. However, he did not do it alone. Outfielder Matt Gorski hit a double and drove in a pair of runs for the Grasshoppers. Blake Sabol, Lolo Sanchez and Liover Peguero each recorded a hit as well.

Behind Priester, Oliver Garcia struck out a batter while walking a pair in scoreless inning of owkr. Bear Bellomy, proud member of the all-name team, faced 6 batters, retired all 6 and struck out 5 of them in an impressive outing.

Despite allowing a run, righty Austin Roberts slammed the door shut in the 9th inning. He struck out a pair as the Grasshoppers sealed a 4-2 victory.

Game three of the series will be played Sunday night. First pitch from Bowling Green Ballpark is scheduled for 6:35 PM ET. It will be a critical game 3 in the best of 5 series as one team will take control fo the series and be just a win away from a league championship.