Braves Drop Second Straight To Grasshoppers

ROME, GA - With rain in the area and the pre-existing field conditions, the Rome Braves originally scheduled double header on Saturday afternoon was reduced to one nine inning contest against the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

J.J. Niekro would toe the rubber for the Braves, as he was originally scheduled to pitch in Friday night's contest. J.J. would enter Saturday's contest with an earned run average above five, but looked to turn in a quality performance for Rome.

Niekro would retire the Grasshoppers in order in the game's opening frame, and would go on to record a quality outing for the first place Braves. Niekro would record two perfect innings before allowing Greensboro to pick up their first hit and run in the top of the third. Niekro would finish with a line score of six innings pitched, three hits, three runs, three walks, and two strikeouts.

Offensively, Rome would get on the board in the home half of the second as Brandon Parker would double home Beau Philip to score the game's first run. Caleb Durbin would tack on one more run with a single that scored Brandon Parker.

Greensboro would plate run a run in the third inning to get on the board, but their two runs in the top of the sixth would give the Grasshoppers the lead thanks to Hudson Head and Dariel Lopez.

With the bases loaded in the home half of the seventh inning, Geraldo Quintero would ground in to a double play. Caleb Durbin would score, knotting the game up at three runs each.

Greensboro would take the lead in the top half of the ninth inning thanks to Eli Wilson's RBI single that scored Jase Bowen.

The four to three loss for the Braves is their forty-fifth of the season, and their fifteenth of the second half. The Braves and Grasshoppers will play two seven inning contests tomorrow in a double header to wrap up the series. The first pitch will be at 12:00 pm with Dylan Spain scheduled to start in game one. Game two will begin shortly after the conclusion of game one.