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High-A Greensboro survives bizarre 9th inning in 13-9 victory

Had it not been for the 12 inning drunken wild affair that took place in Indianapolis, High-A Greensboro would have had the craziest game of the night in the Pirate farm system. When the dust settled from a bizarre 9th inning, the Greensboro Grasshoppers found themselves with a 13-9 victory over the Jersey Shore BlueClaws to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Greensboro jumped out to a big lead early. The Grasshoppers led 9-0 entering the bottom of the 5th inning on their way to scoring 13 runs. Shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng continues to be the catalyst at the top of the Grasshopper lineup. Cheng was 3-for-6 with his 2nd triple of the season, two RBI, and two runs scored.

Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez was 2-for-4 with a run scored, an RBI, two doubles, and two walks. Mike Jarvis was 1-for-2 with a double, two walks, and three runs scored. Right fielder Jase Bowen was 2-for-4 with a run scored, a walk, a double, and four RBI. Left fielder Sammy Siani also had a pair of hits, to go with two walks, two runs scored, and two RBI.

Valentin Linarez made his first start of the season for the Grasshoppers, allowing two hits, walking three, and striking out two in 4 scoreless innings pitched. Mitchell Miller did not allow a hit in his inning of work, but walked a pair, hit a batter, and threw a wild pitch on his way to allowing 3 runs in the 5th inning. Miller's 5th inning is where things started to get weird for both sides.

Santiago Florez allowed a hit while striking out three batters in the 6th inning, however, he allowed an unearned run due to a fielding error by first baseman Will Matthiessen. After Grant Ford pitched 2 scoreless innings, the Grasshoppers appeared to be in position to cruise through an easy 9th inning on their way to victory. However, as is always the case with any team affilaite with the Pirates, nothing can ever be easy.

Drew Irvine started the bottom of the 9th for the Grasshoppers and walked the first three batters of the inning. Irvine was then pulled for Oliver Mateo. While Mateo struck out the first batter he faced, there was a Gutierrez passed ball, three straight walks issued by Mateo, and a single.

With the Greensboro lead cut from 13-4 to 13-8, Cy Nielson replaced Mateo. Nielson started his outing by issuing a bases loaded walk to make the scpre 13-9. Nielson was able to recover for back-to-back strikeouts to end the night with a Grasshopper victory.