Sweeping in Style; Tourists Best Grasshoppers 10-5

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists began the season 3-13 through their first 16 games. That is a distant memory. The second 16 games of the year concluded tonight and Asheville won ten of them. The Tourists defeated the Greensboro Grasshoppers 10-5 and in doing so completed a three-game sweep.
Greensboro led for the first half of the game but the Tourists were never out of it. Trailing 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth, Asheville rallied for five runs including a two-run triple from Ramon Marcelino and a two-run double off the bat of Bret Boswell .

Asheville added two more in the seventh when Ryan Vilade doubled home Sean Bouchard and Chad Spanberger scored on a Matt McLaughlin sacrifice fly. Boswell then launched a solo Home Run in the eighth for good measure.
The Grasshoppers used a three-run Home Run in the top of the first to build an early advantage; however, Spanberger answered with a two-run double in the bottom of the first to keep Asheville within striking distance. Spanberger finished the game 4-for-4.
Antonio Santos started for the Tourists and fought through five innings. His brightest moment was when he worked out of a fifth inning jam. With the visitors already in front 4-2, Greensboro had runners at the corners with no outs. Santos induced a pop out before recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
The Tourists bullpen combination of Erick Julio , Ben Bowden , and Derrik Watson tossed the final four frames and limited the Grasshoppers to only one run.
Next up for the Tourists are the red-hot Kannapolis Intimidators. Game one of the scheduled four-game series is set for 6:05pm at McCormick Field on Saturday night.