Puckett pitches Hoppers to win

Courtesy Greensboro Grasshoppers / April 13, 2018

Brady Puckett spun 6.0 shutout innings to pitch the Greensboro Grasshoppers to an opening night win, 6-1, over the Hickory Crawdads on Thursday night at First National Bank Field. Puckett (1-0) scattered seven hits and two walks while striking out four in his Class A debut with Greensboro (1-0).

Offensively, J.C. Millan paced the Hoppers, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of RBI. Micah Brown also added two hits for the home team.

The Hoppers broke a scoreless tie in the third inning when Garvis Lara doubled in Micah Brown and Jhonny Santos. Greensboro bulked its lead in the fourth with three more runs thanks to a pair of leadoff extra-base hits. Marcos Riveras opened the home half of the fourth with a triple to left field, and J.C. Millan brought him home with a double. Brown, who drove in Millan with a base hit, came around to score on Aaron Knapp’s grounder to right field for a 5-0 advantage. Millan added another tally in the fifth with an RBI-double to plate Rivera.

Hickory starting pitcher Tyler Phillips (0-1) took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits over three and two-third innings while striking out four and walking two.

Greensboro’s bullpen kept the Crawdads off the board until the ninth inning. Reilly Hovis spun scoreless, hitless innings in the seventh and eighth before Hickory’s Enright homered (1) off Manual Rodriguez for the lone opposing run.