Greensboro 9, Savannah 2

After a tough loss last night in West Virginia the Sand Gnats committed five errors in a, 9-2, loss to the Greensboro Grasshoppers Sunday afternoon at NewBridge Bank Park. Southpaw Lance Hoge (0-1) suffered the loss his Savannah debut while Tom Koehler (5-4) earned his first win since early June for the Grasshoppers.

Things started in Savannah’s favor early once again as Hoge struck out the side in the first. Jordan Abruzzo followed up Hoge’s first-inning performance with a blast off the video board in right-center field in the second inning to catapult the Gnats into the lead at, 1-0. The run would be the last Savannah would score until the eighth as Greensboro went on an 8-0 run over the next six innings.

The Grasshoppers took the lead in the second inning off Hoge, picking up two runs on four hits in the inning. The go-ahead single was delivered by Dan Pertusati with one out in the inning as he drove in Justin Bass.

Hoge lasted four innings in his debut and permitted two runs on six hits with the three strikeouts. Tim Smith was called upon to pitch the fifth but ran into some trouble in the inning as he allowed three runs to cross the plate. Josh Satin committed his second error of the game in the fifth inning and Smith also balked in the three-run fifth.

In the sixth the Gnats made three errors, two by second baseman Imbewer Alvarez and one by Sean Ratliff, that led to two more unearned runs being charged to Smith. The Walnut Cove, N.C. native pitched two innings and permitted six runs (two earned) on four hits.

Ratliff doubled in his final at bat in the eighth inning to run his hitting streak to 12 games, which is a new team high surpassing Eric Campbell’s run of 11 games from April 26 to May 7. Satin also collected his fifth multi-hit game during his six-game hitting streak as he went 2-for-4.