Hoppers shut out Dash 7-0 to split rivalry series

Battle of I-40 knotted 6-6 after first series in Winston-Salem since 1968

By Jeff Mills

June 20, 2021

WINSTON-SALEM ― Right-hander J.C. Flowers won in his second start, combining with two relievers on a three-hit shutout as the Greensboro Grasshoppers beat the Winston-Salem Dash 7-0 at Truist Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Fabricio Macias and Jared Triolo both went 3-for-5 for the Hoppers, who split the series and evened

WINSTON-SALEM ― Right-hander J.C. Flowers won in his second start, combining with two relievers on a three-hit shutout as the Greensboro Grasshoppers beat the Winston-Salem Dash 7-0 at Truist Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Fabricio Macias and Jared Triolo both went 3-for-5 for the Hoppers, who split the series and evened the the renewed rivalry called the Battle of I-40 at six wins apiece.

Greensboro's Aaron Shackelford and Matthew Fraizer both hit home runs for the Hoppers (23-19), who are in second place in the High-A East South Division, five games behind Bowling Green (27-13).

Shackelford went 2-for-5 with two RBIs. He leads the High-A East with 12 home runs this season and ranks fourth with a team-best 31 RBIs.

Flowers (1-0, 1.38 ERA), who was promoted from the Class-A Bradenton Marauders on June 1, allowed two hits and struck out four in five innings of work. He faced just three batters over the minimum. In three appearances so far, Flowers has walked one and struck out 11 in 13 innings.

Relievers Will Kobos and Oliver Garcia closed out the game with two scoreless inning apiece. Kobos walked two and struck out two, while Garcia allowed a hit and a walk, striking out one.

Fraizer, the Hoppers' lead-off hitter, went 2-for-4 with his ninth homer of the season, a solo shot in the sixth inning off reliever Edgar Navarro. Fraizer raised his batting average to .320, fifth-best in the league.

Macias raised his batting average to .315, while Triolo had a double and picked up his 25th RBI of the year.

Greensboro pounded out 12 hits in the game. Liover Peguero doubled and scored, and Matt Gorski had two RBIs on a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single.

After a day off Monday, the Hoppers open a six-game series against the Greenville Drive (22-19) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at First National Bank Field. The Hoppers have won 11 of their last 15 games.

The Battle of I-40 rivalry resumes the last week in July in Greensboro, with 12 games remaining between the two clubs. This is the first time since 1968 teams from Greensboro and Winston-Salem have been in the same league and played one another.

In his career at the News & Record, journalist Jeff Mills won 10 national and 12 state writing awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Society for Features Journalism, and the N.C. Press Association.