Late Heroics, Lockdown Arms Lift Grasshoppers to Twin Bill Sweep

Greensboro, NC (May 4, 2025) – In a double header sweep, Greensboro (19-8) took both games from Winston-Salem (9-18) by a combined three runs. The Grasshoppers took game one in a dramatic 9-8 walk-off and secured the series with a 3-1 win in the nightcap.

Winston-Salem had its foot on the throat of Greensboro in game one of the twin bill – Clete Hartzog’s was the bump, up 8-7, Keiner Delgado and the Grasshoppers down to their final strike.

The 1-2 pitch from the Dash closer was scorched and cleared the right field fence as it hugged the foul pole.

The game was tied again, 8-8, but not for long. Kalae Harrison snuck a single into right field, and the Grasshoppers walked it off to start the day.

On a day when the I-40 rivals double-dipped, the offense wasted no time in the early afternoon at First National Bank Field. In the first two innings, Greensboro plated five runs, four of them on one swing when Enmanuel Terrero launched a grand slam to add an exclamation point to the 5-0 advantage.

The grand slam marked the end of the day for Dash starter Tanner McDougal, who went two innings and surrendered the five runs on two hits.

Behind 5-0, the Winston-Salem bats found a spark and scored four straight runs over the next ten batters. A three-run third inning started with a Samuel Zavala double. A few batters later, Jeral Perez drove in both Zavala and Sam Antonacci. Perez later scored when Arxy Hernandez grounded into a double play.

Then, in the fourth, Zavala recorded his second hit of the game, this time via the long ball. In game one of the double header, the Dash center fielder finished 3-4 with a pair of RBIs and was a triple shy of the cycle.

In a one-run affair, the two teams traded blows in the middle frames and headed to the final two innings with Greensboro in front 7-5. In the top of the sixth, the Dash offense erased the deficit in the first with Perez’s ninth home run of the year, and then with a Cole McConnell RBI single.

All square at 7-7, Winston-Salem grabbed its first lead of the day in the seventh. Zavala tacked on the go-ahead run on a single to right that brought Jordan Sprinkle in to score – 8-7 Dash.

In the bottom of the seventh, Delgado tied the contest with his first home run of the season, and Harrison delivered the fireworks for the home crowd with the walkoff single. In the end, Hartzog (1-1) took the loss for Winston-Salem, and Landon Tomkins (1-0) earned the win.

Greensboro took the momentum from game one into game two. The Dash got on the board early when Antonocci homered on the second pitch of the game to open the contest in the top of the first.

Paired with the fast start, Winston-Salem got solid work from their starter Lucas Gordon, who went a complete six innings and recorded six strikeouts.

The Dash, however, were blanked the rest of the nightcap and picked up just two hits the rest of the game. On the other side, Greensboro scored a run in the fourth and a pair in the sixth to close the book on the doubleheader sweep.

The Dash look to bounce back on Tuesday, May 6, in their return home for a series against Bowling Green.