DABOS Park - Montgomery Biscuits

Knoxville Smokies (CHC) @ Montgomery Biscuits (TB)

June 13, 2026

Smokies 12, Biscuits 5

W: Frankie Scalzo Jr.
L: Santiago Suarez

HR: Jefferson Rojas (KNX), Will Simpson (MTG)

Attendance: 2,061
Time of Game: 3 hours, 13 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Montgomery, AL
Opened: 2004
Capacity: 7,000
Level: Double A
League: Southern

On Saturday morning, I hit the road to make the short drive south from Birmingham to Montgomery.  Traffic was surprisingly heavy for this drive, which I have chalked up as being caused by people driving down to the Gulf Shore beaches for the weekend.  Early that afternoon, I experienced my first of several instances on this trip where a thunderstorm seemingly came out of nowhere to dump a lot of rain in a short period of time.  Fortunately, it cleared well before it was time to head to the ballpark.

DABOS Park, as it was just renamed this past winter, sits in the heart of historic downtown Montgomery, next to Riverwalk Park on the Alabama River.  Prior to this year, the ballpark was actually named Riverwalk Stadium.  With this being my third straight evening at a Southern League ballpark, and the fourth of the year, I started to realize that the Southern League is really the epicenter of uniquely designed ballparks.  It is not particularly obvious you are walking towards a baseball stadium as you approach DABOS Park.  It is built into an old train shed on the first base side and a large brick sided building on the third base side.  The concourse on the first base side runs within the perimeter of that train shed, with arched entrances out to the seating areas.  Also within this building is an indoor bar area and several concession stands.  The suites on that side feature large decks sticking out of the building, hovering over the walkway below.  The third base side is much more of a traditional ballpark design with suites and a party deck on the second level above a concourse which is situated at the top of the main seating area.  There is a walkway around the entire outfield.  However, there are no fixed seats anywhere out there.  On this particular evening, there didn't seem to be a lot of activity anywhere in the outfield, other than a mini train giving kids rides around the park.  Speaking of trains, there are active tracks just beyond the left field perimeter of the park.  I saw several freight trains pass by over the course of the evening.  This is another minor league team that seems to make a killing off of merchandise, with their very unique and cartoonish biscuit logo.  The team store was a hub of activity pre-game.  Yes, of course I had a biscuit sandwich at the game.  There were plenty of options.  I went the chicken biscuit route.  There was not a particularly large crowd at this game for it being a relatively nice Saturday evening.  However, it did become a rather rowdy crowd toward the later innings, even as the game got a little out of hand for the home team.

This mid-June Southern League contest featured a pair of teams in the thick of the first half division championship races, Knoxville in the North Division and Montgomery in the South.  It was a pretty compelling starting pitching matchup with Tyler Schlaffer on the mound for Knoxville and Santiago Suarez for Montgomery.  I saw Schlaffer throw five innings of scoreless one-hit ball in Knoxville a month earlier.  He was not nearly as effective on this night, but was also a victim of some bad luck.  He walked the leadoff batter in the bottom of the second, and then induced a groundball that could have been a double play, but instead hit the umpire for a dead ball single.  The next four hitters all reached safely as well, including RBI singles by Kenny Piper, Kamren James and Mac Horvath.  The Biscuits eventually left the bases loaded, but scored three times to take a 3-0 lead.  It all fell apart for Suarez and Montgomery in the top of the third though.  The first two batters of the inning hit hard grounders near shortstop Jadher Areinamo that he was unable to corral, and both were scored as singles.  Knoxville third baseman Jefferson Rojas then crushed a three run homer to left-center to tie the game.  I also saw Rojas homer a level lower in South Bend last summer.  That was immediately followed with a double by Owen Ayers and then a walk.  Later in the inning, Alex Ramirez lined a double to right to score a run which gave the Smokies the lead.  Eventually, two more runs would score and Knoxville wound up putting up a six spot to take a 6-3 lead.  Then the scoring completely stopped until the eighth inning when Knoxville tacked on another in the top half.  In the bottom of the eighth, the Biscuits attempted to make one last charge.  Will Simpson hit a home run to dead center to tally the first Montgomery run since the second inning.  They would add an unearned run later in the frame to cut the Knoxville lead to two heading into the ninth.  That's when the wheels completely fell off for the Biscuits.  Montgomery reliever Jackson Lancaster faced seven batters and all of them reached base safely.  The only out recorded on his ledger was a caught stealing.  The first run of the inning was scored on a no out double by Andy Garriola that effectively put this one out of reach.  Four more hits and a walk eventually led to a six run inning for the Smokies.  That put them ahead by a 12-5 score, which was the final.  Knoxville joined Greenville as the only teams I saw play multiple times this year without a loss.

It was a leisurely paced 3 hour, 13 minute game.  I had nowhere better to be that evening though, so no complaints from me.  This was the first of a two night stay in Montgomery for me.  On Sunday, I made a day trip to Western Georgia for another Southern League game in Columbus.

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Next ballpark: Synovus Park in Columbus, GA

Regions Field - Birmingham Barons

Biloxi Shuckers (MIL) @ Birmingham Barons (CHW)

June 12, 2026

Barons 3, Shuckers 2

W: Johnathan Clark
L: Travis Smith

HR: Anthony DePino (BIR)

Attendance: 4,080
Time of Game: 2 hours, 17 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Birmingham, AL
Opened: 2013
Capacity: 8,500
Level: Double A
League: Southern

After my short stay in Tennessee, I drove down to Birmingham, Alabama on a Friday afternoon.  Regions Field is the only minor league ballpark I visited this year that I had been to before.  In 2017, I visited Birmingham as part of a trip to see all of the White Sox minor league affiliates, plus the Braves new stadium in Atlanta.  On that trip, I just made a day trip to Birmingham from the Atlanta area.  So this was my first time actually staying a night in Birmingham, or anywhere else in Alabama for that matter.

When Regions Field opened in 2013, it was widely considered the crown jewel of the Southern League and one of the nicest parks in all of the minor leagues.  That's probably not the case any longer, but it is still a very nice facility.  It hadn't occurred to me the night before while in Chattanooga, but the architects for the new Chattanooga park probably got a few of their design ideas from Birmingham.  First of all, Regions Field also celebrates its city's industrial past with a brick and metal exterior.  Additionally, the asymmetrical design of the upper seating areas are somewhat similar to Chattanooga's, except the sides are reversed.  Here, the two levels of suites are on the first base side, while club seating, an indoor lounge and a party patio can be found behind home plate spanning out beyond third base.  Traditional reserved seating on the main level stretches from just beyond third base all the way out to the right field foul pole.  I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me they have expanded the perimeter of the ballpark in the outfield since the last time I was here.  It now runs almost all the way back to the apartment buildings that surround left field, well beyond the left field fence.  This creates a ton of open space throughout the outfield.  The Barons' batting cage is viewable from the concourse in right field.  There is a huge picnic area in left field with seating areas in the left field home run porch.  There are also bleacher seats available in right field.  Grass berm seating can be found in right-centerfield as well as down the third base line.  This downtown ballpark is surrounded by residential high rises in both left and right field.  Hovering over the park a couple blocks beyond centerfield is a huge children's hospital.  During the 7th inning stretch, fans are encouraged to turn their phone flashlights on and wave to kids in the hospital, similar to the tradition at Iowa Hawkeyes football games with the children's hospital overlooking their stadium.  Even though I was quite invested in this game featuring a White Sox affiliate, my attention was somewhat divided during the later stages of the game because the USA men's soccer team was playing their first game in this summer's World Cup this evening as well.  One small complaint from an otherwise very enjoyable experience:  the sound system was cranked up WAY too loud at the beginning of the game.  Fortunately, they eventually seemed to tune it down a bit.

A side note from this game before I get to the recap.  The PA announcer kept referring to the player formerly known as Alec Makarwicz, the Barons third baseman, as Alec Briley.  The scoreboard had him listed as Makarwicz and I had seen him play by that name a bunch of times before.  So I was very confused by this.  The following day, I did some research and discovered that Briley is his wife's last name.  Apparently, sometime that week, he made the decision to use his wife's last name, at least professionally.  I would imagine he grew tired of people butchering the pronunciation of his previous name.

When I last saw the Barons play a month earlier in Knoxville, they only recorded one hit, an infield single by the first batter of the game.  In the weeks that passed between these games, they received a couple reinforcements by way of promotion, notably including third/first baseman Anthony DePino.  Even with a little more impressive lineup, it still took them until the sixth inning of this game to surpass their hit total from Knoxville.  Jaron DeBerry got the start for Biloxi and mostly held the Barons offense in check.  The same could be said for Birmingham's starter, southpaw Lucas Gordon.  Both hurlers pitched into the sixth inning while only allowing a pair of hits.  As for hitters, this was my first time seeing the current consensus top prospect in baseball, Biloxi shortstop Jesus Made.  He didn't do anything particularly spectacular in this game, but did record a single and made a bunch of nice plays defensively.  Biloxi got the scoring started in the third inning.  Following a leadoff walk, Jacob Hurtubise lined one just inside the right field line for a RBI stand up triple.  Gordon was able to strand him on third though, keeping the Shuckers lead at 1-0.  It was the only run Gordon would allow.  The Barons finally got on the board against DeBerry in the sixth inning, immediately after the Shuckers stranded the bases loaded in the top of the sixth.  In the bottom half, a couple batters after DeBerry issued a walk, DePino absolutely crushed a 3-2 pitch to the concourse in left for a two run homer, which put Birmingham ahead 2-1.  That is how it would stay until the ninth inning.  Jonathan Clark came in to pitch for the Barons, looking to close the game out.  He wound up walking the first batter he faced, Mike Boeve, who was lifted for a pinch runner, Southern League stolen base leader Dylan O'Rea.  O'Rea would eventually steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch.  With two outs, Hurtubise came up with a clutch single to tie the game.  He knocked in both of the Shuckers runs on the evening.  Despite the deflating blown lead in the top of the ninth, the Birmingham fans didn't remain despondent very long.  Leading off the bottom of the ninth, DePino made Regions Park look very small again, crushing a Travis Smith hanging slider to nearly the same location on the left field concourse as before.  This walk off homer gave the Barons a 3-2 victory, and ended the White Sox affiliates winless season with me in the house.

What a fun evening this turned out to be!  The Barons got a walk-off win, the USMNT cruised to victory over Paraguay and the White Sox beat the Dodgers.  Not a bad Friday night for yours truly.  More fun was to be had in Alabama that weekend, as I drove down to the state capital, Montgomery, the following day.

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Next ballpark: DABOS Park in Montgomery, AL

Erlanger Park - Chattanooga Lookouts

Rocket City Trash Pandas (LAA) @ Chattanooga Lookouts (CIN)

June 11, 2026

Lookouts 4, Trash Pandas 2

W: Johnathan Harmon
L: Joel Hurtado

S: Johnathan Lavallee

HR: Mac McCroskey (RCT), Zavier Warren (CHA), Ryan McCrystal (CHA)

Attendance: 6,540
Time of Game: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Chattanooga, TN
Opened: 2026
Capacity: 8,032
Level: Double A
League: Southern

After five days in the Carolinas, it was time to start the Southern League portion of my trip.  I drove west to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Well, I actually drove southwest then northwest to Chattanooga because there is no straight shot route from Greenville to Chattanooga thanks to the extensive mountains separating those two cities.  Chattanooga itself features Lookout Mountain from which the baseball team gets its nickname.  This Thursday night game was the first of seven straight Southern League games I would attend.  As a reminder, I went to a SL game in Knoxville a month earlier.  Over the course of the next week plus, I would visit all of the other seven ballparks of the Southern League, starting in Chattanooga.

The Lookouts moved into the brand new Erlanger Park this season.  While it is indeed a very modern park on the inside, it does not appear as such from the exterior because they made the very unique design decision to build it right into the old industrial neighborhood in which it resides.  The stadium is built right up against a long ago abandoned warehouse along the first base side.  The team store is actually housed within the premises of that building.  The main parking lot is covered with gravel and separated from the ballpark by defunct train tracks.  It is a very unique setting to say the least.  I would be curious to see what this old neighborhood, a few miles south of downtown Chattanooga, looks like in the coming years because this park is just the beginning of a major revitalization project.  As it currently stands though, they already have a pretty cool thing going on there.  The uniqueness of the neighborhood sets the scene, but the interior of the ballpark is quite interesting as well.  It is as asymmetrical of an interior design in a modern ballpark as I can recall.  The first base and third base sides of the seating areas look nothing alike.  On the first base side is just a handful of rows on the lower level leading up to the concourse, while the third base side is a more traditional layout on that level.  The first base concourse features a food hall with several concession options and a full service bar.  Even the group and premium spaces on the upper level are quite different on each side, with a large indoor space behind the second level seats on the first base side and two levels of suites plus a party deck spanning from behind home plate out beyond third base.  The third base upper levels feature a brown, wood-like colored facade that also plays into the industrial motif of the park.  There are a ton of standing room vantage points throughout the outfield, including on the roof of the club situated in dead centerfield.  The entire outfield and well down each foul line feature all sorts of unique group and party areas, with a large berm seating area in left field.  I was very impressed by this park and give the architects a big thumbs up for trying something completely different than its contemporary new ballparks.  The local fans seem to like it as well as there was a huge crowd on hand for this Thursday evening game.

Certain elements of the ballpark weren't the only things that made this game a bit of a throwback experience.  In an extremely rare occurrence in modern minor league baseball, both starting pitchers in this game wound up pitching into the seventh inning.  It was a pair of righties, Joel Hurtado for Rocket City and Johnathan Harmon for Chattanooga.  Both pitched well, although Hurtado's final line wasn't all that impressive as he got roughed up a bit in his last couple innings and perhaps would have been pulled a little earlier if winning this game had been paramount for Rocket City.  The Trash Pandas scored first in the top of the third.  Following a leadoff walk and single, Nick Rodriguez lined a sacrifice fly to center to put Rocket City ahead.  The Lookouts tied it up in the fourth on an interesting sequence of events, starting with a bunt single by Jay Allen.  Following a questionable out call at first, Allen would score on a single by Pablo Aliendo, during which another base runner was nabbed at third.  In the fifth inning, both teams tallied runs on solo homers.  For Rocket City, it was Mac McCroskey lining an opposite field shot just over the wall into his team's bullpen.  That would wind up being the Trash Pandas last hit of the game.  In the bottom half of the fifth, left handed hitting Xavier Warren hit a bomb to right to tie the game at two.  In the sixth inning with Hurtado still on the mound for Rocket City, Lookouts catcher Ryan McCrystal came up to bat with two outs and a runner on first and hit a towering flyball to the left field wall that the left fielder made a leaping attempt to grab but came up empty.  At first glance, it appeared to clang off the wall for extra bases.  But the umpire ruled that it had cleared the fence for a two run homer, giving the Lookouts a 4-2 lead.  Quite an evening at the plate for players with surnames beginning with McCr.  As previously mentioned, both starters remained in the game into the seventh inning.  Once they were replaced, the scoring ended.  Neither team would record a hit against the relievers who covered the final two frames on each side.  In fact, a McCrystal walk would be the only baserunner for either side against a reliever.  Jonathan Lavallee retired all three batters he faced in the ninth to pick up a save, closing out a Lookouts 4-2 victory.

This was my one and only game in Tennessee on this trip, but third different park in the state this year.  Chattanooga, Nashville and Knoxville all have very nice ballparks that I would recommend visiting if you are in that state during baseball season.  After this nice start to the Southern League portion of the trip, it was down to Birmingham, Alabama for the first of an eventual three games in the state of Alabama.

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Next ballpark: Regions Field in Birmingham, AL

Fifth Third Park - Hub City Spartanburgers

Asheville Tourists (HOU) @ Hub City Spartanburgers (TEX)

June 10, 2026

Spartanburgers 21, Tourists 0

W: Brock Porter
L: Yeriel Santos

HR: Yeison Morrobel (HCS), Hector Osorio (HCS), Esteban Mejia (HCS), Maxton Martin (HCS)

Attendance: 3,613
Time of Game: 3 hours, 8 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Spartanburg, SC
Opened: 2025
Capacity: 5,250
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

On Wednesday morning, I made the short drive from Greenville to Spartanburg for an 11 a.m. first pitch at Fifth Third Park in Spartanburg.  This early start time gave me more than enough time to squeeze in two games in the same day, as I returned to Greenville for another game that evening.  This ballpark neighborhood on the edge of downtown Spartanburg isn't quite as built up as Greenville... yet.  There were several cranes visible in the area that is being transformed with tons of new development ongoing.  The uniquely named Hub City Spartanburgers, where the team's location moniker is actually the city's nickname and the team nickname includes the city's actual name, is a very new franchise.

The Down East Ducks relocated to Spartanburg in the brand new Fifth Third Park in 2025.  With this move was also an upgrade to the High A South Atlantic League while fellow Rangers affiliate Hickory was moved down to the Low A Carolina League.  While Hickory was a nice park in its own right, it's easy to see why that swap was made.  Fifth Third Park would have been severely overqualified at Low A.  It's even arguable that this franchise could be a strong candidate to bump up to the AA Southern League should that league eventually add a couple more teams.  This is easily one of the nicest Class A ballparks I've seen.  The ballpark has three entrances, with the main one being near a parking garage in left field.  There is a huge concourse surrounding the main seating areas, particularly right behind home plate.  This concourse features an impressive assortment of concessions, yes, including a full fledged burger bar.  Sadly, I wasn't really in the mood for a burger prior to the morning first pitch.  The lower seating bowl features six sections closest to home plate that have seats made of what I would call office chair material stretching all the way from the field to the concourse.  Perhaps I've seen enhanced comfort seating like this elsewhere in the minors, but not in this quantity.  Down the first base line is a terrace section with plenty of tables and chairs.  No fixed seating in the outfield, but there is a large grass berm in left field that was filled with kids on this particular day.  The second level features several premium seating areas, including plenty of suites and a large club area.  It was a nice, sunny late morning and early afternoon in Spartanburg.  As is typically the case for these summer weekday matinee games, the kid to adult ratio was quite high.  Interestingly, for this game, the PA announcer was sitting right at field level near the visitors dugout.  I wonder if he always does that, or if this was a special occasion.  I would think not if there is any threat of weather as that spot was definitely not protected from the elements.

It was easy to see why Asheville finished the first half of the season with the worst record in all of affiliated minor league baseball.  Turns out, the 16 runs I saw them give up five days earlier wasn't just a product of their small home ballpark and wasn't the worst performance I saw from their pitchers on this trip.  Meanwhile, Hub City made their home park look small, which it really is not.  In fact, I think it may normally play slightly as a pitchers park, though the wind was blowing out a bit on this afternoon.  Yeriel Santos got the start on the mound for Asheville and the first few innings went decently for him before the wheels fell off.  He created a mess for himself in the second by loading the bases with a pair of walks surrounding a hit batter to start the inning.  Esteban Mejia just missed a grand slam as he flew out just short of the wall in center for a sacrifice fly to give the Burgers an early lead.  They then broke the game open in the fourth inning when they scored five runs off of Santos, all coming with two outs.  Yeison Morrobel lined a three run homer into the Hub City bullpen in right, his first High A home run.  Maxton Martin followed that with an opposite field double off the wall near the pole in left.  Then Hector Osorio hit a towering fly ball to right center that the nearest fielder, the right fielder did not see at all.  Turns out it didn't matter though as the ball cleared the fence for a two run homer giving the Spartanburgers a comfortable 6-0 lead.  Meanwhile, right handed pitcher J'Briell Easley got the start for Hub City and cruised through four innings without allowing a run and just one hit.  He was followed by Brock Porter who also pitched four scoreless innings while striking out five.  Both pitchers were extremely dominant but were overshadowed by the Burgers hitters.  The hits kept on coming in the fifth inning as they batted around for the second straight inning.  Chandler Pollard started the inning with a generous triple on a deep fly ball to left that the left fielder misjudged.  Mejia followed that with a towering homer to the berm in left.  The next two batters completed the inning cycle with a double and a single.  Then Maxton Martin hit a two run homer off the scoreboard in right.  Hub City would later tack on an unearned run for a six spot in the fifth inning, blowing the game open with a 12 run lead.  Mercifully, Asheville was able to keep the Spartanburgers off the board in the sixth.  But then Hub City would bat through the order two more times in the seventh and eighth innings, making it four of five innings in which they pulled off that feat.  They scored five runs in the seventh, this time without the benefit of a home run.  Asheville turned to a position player, catcher Freuddy Batista, to pitch the eighth inning.  Unsurprisingly, he wasn't any more effective than the Toursists actual full time pitchers.  He walked four batters as the Burgers were unwilling to chase his floaters.  They scored four more for good measure to close out a three touchdown victory.  Hub City scored 21 runs on 17 hits.  It was a long and ugly afternoon for Asheville as they dropped this one 21-0 to fall to 16-42 on the season.

As mentioned, I went back to Greenville for another game between the Drive and the Winston-Salem Dash that evening, with Greenville picking up another win.  That brought an end to the Carolina portion of the trip.  From there, I drove west to Chattanooga, visiting the first of seven straight Southern League ballparks.

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Next ballpark: Erlanger Park in Chattanooga, TN

Fluor Field - Greenville Drive

Winston-Salem Dash (CHW) @ Greenville Drive (BOS)

June 9, 2026

Drive 8, Dash 7

W: Calvin Bickerstaff
L: Jake Curtis

HR: Alex Ungar (WS), Kaleb Freeman (WS), Isaiah Jackson (GVL), Ronny Hernandez (GVL)

Attendance: 4,648
Time of Game: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Greenville, SC
Opened: 2006
Capacity: 6,700
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

In my original plans for this trip down south, I was going to slip in a return trip to Charlotte to see the Knights play on this Tuesday night.  However, I changed my mind and decided to stay in Upstate South Carolina for an extra day.  I think this was a good decision because it gave me an opportunity to spend more time in an area in which I had very little prior history.  I've heard a ton of great things about South Carolina as a whole, but mostly about the Atlantic Coast.  I'm here to tell you that Upstate South Carolina is pretty great too.  I thoroughly enjoyed exploring downtown Greenville, which is very walkable with multiple restaurants and shops on virtually every block.  At the west end of downtown is Fluor Field, where on a Tuesday night I attended the first of two games there.

Fluor Field is basically Fenway South.  The playing field is a near replica of the Drive's big league affiliate's stadium in Boston.  There is a large Green Monster wall in left field with a matching manual scoreboard in it to boot.  Right field features a very short right field foul pole with a fence that quickly juts out to a create a spacious right field.  It is a robust 420' at its deepest point in right-centerfield.  Like Fenway, there are seats available at the top of the Green Monster.  But even above that are rooftop seats on the brick-sided office building that forms the perimeter of the stadium in left field.  These seating areas above the left field wall are the only outfield seats.  There is a plethora of seats in the main seating bowl in foul territory though, above which a spacious concourse sits.  That concourse houses a solid selection of concessions, including grab-n-go spots that up to this point I hadn't recalled seeing too often in lower level minor league parks.  There is a large picnic pavilion down the first base line and lawn seating below the kids zone on the third base side.  The second level features additional premium group areas and suites.  Perhaps I have been to a couple nicer High A ballparks than this one, but Fluor Field has just about everything you could want from a lower level minor league park.  And its convenient location with plenty of bars and restaurants in the area are tough to beat.  I'm only going to write about the first game I attended here, but I did make a return trip the following night and thoroughly enjoyed both experiences, even though the losing ways of my White Sox affiliates continued with me in attendance.  There was a very nice sized crowd on hand for this Tuesday evening tilt between the White Sox and Red Sox High A affiliates.

I wouldn't say it had any impact on this game, but one interesting thing I noticed early on is that Winston-Salem was aligning their outfielders in a manner that must have been a specific gameplan for this ballpark with a small left field and massive right field.  Their outfielders were shifted well towards right no matter who was at the plate.  The home team, on the other hand, played it pretty much straight up most of the night.  This game started off well enough for Winston-Salem as it took three batters for this Sox affiliate to exceed the hit totals from the previous two Sox affiliate games I attended.  Caleb Bonemer and Ryan Burrows singled, completed a double steal, and both scored on a single by Kaleb Freeman to give the Dash an early 2-0 lead off of Greenville southpaw Devin Futrell.  They added a couple more in the second inning when nine hole hitter Drew Unger launched one into the Monster seats for a two run homer.  Drew McDaniel got the start on the mound for Winston-Salem.  After being handed that early four run lead, he gave it all back in the bottom of the second, surrendering a pair of two run homers.  The first was a deep drive to right by Isaiah Jackson that just barely eluded the leaping robbery attempt by very tall right fielder George Wolkow.  The second was a towering fly ball into the bullpen in right-center by Ronny Hernandez, giving both teams' nine hole hitters two run homers in the second.  This had to be especially rewarding for Hernandez, who was traded from the White Sox to the Red Sox last winter.  Winston-Salem got the lead back in the top of the third on a home run by Freeman to almost the exact same spot as Hernandez's blast, except in Freeman's case it was an opposite field shot.  Hernandez would get his second of three hits for the Drive in the fourth to knock in another run and once again tie the game.  The Dash immediately retook the lead in the fifth on a RBI groundout by Freeman, his fourth run driven in on the night.  Kyle Lodise followed that with a single to knock in Wolkow, giving the Dash a 7-5 lead.  They had a chance to blow it wide open in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, but Calvin Bickerstaff came in to pitch for the Drive and put out the fire with a pair of strikeouts.  He would go the rest of the way without allowing any runs or hits.  After failing to tack on in the top of the seventh, the Dash paid for it by giving up the lead for good in the bottom half.  The first four Greenville hitters all recorded hits.  The biggest blow was a line drive double to left by Enddy Azocar, who I saw playing for Salem about a month earlier.  That run scoring hit was followed by a two run single by Yoeilin Cespedes off the wall in left.  While well struck, I'm not sure either of those would have been hits in a ballpark with a traditional configuration and outfield alignment.  But Drive players would be well served to continue to take advantage of their home confines as Fenway plays nearly identically.  Greenville scored three in the seventh to take an 8-5 lead, which was the final score.  Bickerstaff got the well deserved win.  White Sox affiliates dropped to 0-5 with me in the house this year.  At least the Dash were able to record some runs and hits.

For the record, Winston-Salem would go on to lose the following night with me there as well, in a game they trailed most of the night.  That was the second of two games I attended that day as I drove up to Spartanburg for a Wednesday matinee game first.

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Next ballpark: Fifth Third Park in Spartanburg, SC

HomeTrust Park - Asheville Tourists

Greensboro Grasshoppers (PIT) @ Asheville Tourists (HOU)

June 7, 2026

Grasshoppers 16, Tourists 14

W: Owen Kellington
L: Bryce Collins

S: Kyle Larsen

HR: Yordany De Los Santos 2 (GBO), Murf Gray 2 (GBO), Carlos Caro (GBO), Chase Call (ASH)

Attendance: 2,373
Time of Game: 3 hours, 50 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Asheville, NC
Opened: 1924
Capacity: 4,000
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

After opening my trip seeing a Saturday evening no-hitter in Hickory, I finished the weekend with a Sunday afternoon game a little further west in the city of Asheville, North Carolina, nestled within the Appalachian Mountains.  For a modestly sized city, Asheville has a lot going on.  It is one of the craft brewery capitals of the country.  You are pretty much a stone's throw away from a brewery anywhere in the downtown area.  At the south end of downtown sits quite possibly the most unique ballpark in all of professional baseball.

HomeTrust Park, which was named McCormick Field until very recently, opened way back in 1924, making it the third oldest park in affiliated minor league baseball and the oldest outside the state of Florida.  It occupies a small patch of flat land surrounded by hills, necessitating comical dimensions for the playing field.  It is only 297 feet to the right field foul pole and just 373 feet to straight away center field.  Left field is only slightly deeper than right, but has a slightly lower wall as well, making it incredibly easy for batters to clear the fence in all directions.  I'm glad this ballpark exists and highly recommend checking it out sometime.  That said, I'm also glad I don't root for a MLB team that has Asheville as an affiliate because it would be impossible to judge players' true talent by looking at their statline.  In this park, routine fly ball outs elsewhere turn into home runs or doubles off the wall.  I suppose it might turn some doubles into singles too since it is not easy to advance on balls that slam off the wall.  However, the ballpark gives hitters far more bases than it takes away.  I feel for the Tourists pitchers.  It also makes me wonder if the Astros are hesitant to send their top prospects to Asheville for long tours of duty as both hitters and pitchers could develop bad habits playing there.  Anyway, now back to the stadium itself.  Green hills and trees encircle almost the entire ballpark.  It has a classic brick exterior.  It has recently undergone renovations which has added some luxury seating options and party areas down each baseline.  But the bulk of the seats exist in one seating bowl that stretches into the outfield area down the first base line, but barely past third base on the other side.  The concourse is underneath the upper part of the seating bowl, with the entrances from the concourse leading to a walkway that bisects the seating area.  A roof overhangs a good portion of the seats, which was nice on this sunny afternoon.  The concourse is lined with an impressive array of concessions, including several beer stands from local breweries.

This game resembled the one I saw the night before in no way, shape or form.  I suspect it was a pretty typical game in this bandbox though.  It took two batters to see what this park is all about.  Grasshoppers shortstop Yordany De Los Santos started his huge day by lining an opposite field homer to right center, well over the tall wall.  It seemed to be crushed, so it's quite possible it would have been a home run just about anywhere.  But I really don't know for sure when the wall is 30 feet closer to the plate than just about any other park I've seen.  In the bottom of the first, the Tourists tied it up on a towering fly ball hit by Chase Call that carried over the left field wall.  I think I can safely say this one would have been an out in most parks.  Things really got crazy in the top of the second, where I will start skipping run scoring plays for the sake of time.  The first three Greensboro batters got hits.  Then with one out, De Los Santos came up and slugged his second home run in as many innings, this one a three run shot hit in the exact same direction as the first one.  Maybe just a little higher though.  Again, a no doubter in this park.  Two batters later, Murf Gray crushed a hanger well over the left field wall for a two run homer.  The Grasshoppers wound up putting up an 8 spot in the inning to take a 9-1 lead, amazingly a lead they would not hold.  Asheville chipped away with four runs in the bottom of the third, aided by a pair of hit batters by Greensboro's lefty starter Connor Oliver.  The Tourists added two more in the fourth and then took the lead with another four runs in the sixth, with the big blow coming on a three run double by Nehomar Ochoa.  What was once an eight run lead turned into a 2 run deficit for the Grasshoppers after six.  They finally got back on the board in the seventh though, retaking the lead on another homer by Gray, a line shot over the wall just to the right of dead center.  Pretty sure this one would not have been a homer in most parks, but probably a solid double.  Asheville tied it up in the bottom of the seventh.  Greensboro then took the lead for good with two more in the eighth.  Both teams scored in each of the final three innings.  The difference wound up being that the Grasshoppers scored multiple runs while the Tourists put up single runs in those frames.  When it was all said and done, Greensboro hung on to win this slugfest by a score of 16-14.  There were 30 runs scored on 29 hits, six of which were home runs.  Oh, and there were 26 strikeouts as well.  So that's a lot of damage being done on balls in play.  The game took 3:50 to complete, definitely one of the longest baseball games I've attended in years.  But I had nowhere else to be, so I enjoyed every minute of it.

This was a really fun game in what seems to be a fun city.  Perhaps it was a bit of a mistake to leave town the following morning without checking out more of the Asheville scene.  That concluded the North Carolina portion of this trip.  Next up were a couple more South Atlantic League ballparks in South Carolina, my first time venturing into that state for baseball games.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Fluor Field in Greenville, SC

L.P. Frans Stadium - Hickory Crawdads

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (CHW) @ Hickory Crawdads (TEX)

June 6, 2026

Crawdads 5, Cannon Ballers 0

W: Jormy Nivar
L: Max Banks

HR: Angel Arredondo (HIC)

Attendance: 3,246
Time of Game: 2 hours, 17 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Hickory, NC
Opened: 1993
Capacity: 5,000
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

Last month, I embarked upon my most aggressive baseball trip to date, even putting last year's big Midwest trip to shame.  This one was a 16 day, 13 ballpark excursion through the Deep South.  A majority of the trip was spent covering the Double A Southern League, nearly in its entirety.  The only SL park not covered on this trip was Knoxville, where I visited a month earlier.  The seven Southern League stops were bookended by some Carolina, South Atlantic and International League games, starting with the only Low A Carolina league ballpark on this trip in Hickory, North Carolina.

I have spent a fair amount of time in North Carolina over the years, but almost exclusively in the Charlotte area or Research Triangle region.  This was my first time in the more rural and mountainy western parts of the state.  Hickory is nothing like those other NC cities I've experienced before.  It is a smallish town in the west-central part of North Carolina.  Hickory was moved down to Low A last year when the Rangers then-Carolina League affiliate relocated to a brand new stadium in Spartanburg, SC and got upgraded to the High A South Atlantic League.  I visited that park a few days later and completely understand why that swap was made.  That's no knock on Hickory though, as it is a very nice park in its own right.  I thought L.P. Frans Stadium was quite a bit nicer than the two Carolina League parks in Virginia that I visited earlier this year.  It is a city owned stadium located in a park in the northwest edge of town.  Trees surround the outfield walls.  The seating area is basically contained to just beyond first and third base on each side.  The park has a brick exterior around the main entrance as well as surrounding the main concourse, which is situated above the seating bowl, but walled off from being able to see the field from most locations because of the pressbox and a handful of suites at the back of the seating area.  Brick pillars hold up the slanted roof that overhangs some of the upper seating sections.  A wide walkway splits the seating bowl into two distinct sections.  This was the first weekend game in Hickory for the Crawdads in nearly a month.  Their previous home series got relocated to Winston-Salem as there had been a fire in the visitor's clubhouse during the last series played in Hickory that required some time to recover from.  There was a big crowd on hand for this Saturday night game, and the home fans got their money's worth as this became quite a memorable game for which to start this trip.

This game between the Rangers and White Sox Low A affiliates featured a very good pitching matchup for this level.  Kannapolis righty Max Banks was just coming off a great month of May in which he was named the White Sox minor league pitcher of the month.  He was opposed by AJ Russell, a strong armed righty who the Rangers drafted in the second round last year despite an injury plagued college career at Tennessee.  He currently ranks as the #3 prospect in the Rangers system according to MLB Pipeline and was just recently promoted to High A.  He was utterly dominant in this game, but apparently limited to a pretty hard pitch count of around 50.  Russell did not allow a base runner and struck out five in 3 1/3 innings.  Banks pitched okay, with five strikeouts of his own.  But just okay wasn't going to be nearly good enough for Kannapolis on this night.  Hickory got on the board in the second inning when Angel Arredono started the inning by slugging a home run into the trees beyond the left field wall.  As it turns out, that would be all the Crawdads would need.  However, they did add more offense later.  In the fifth, the bottom two hitters in the lineup started a rally with singles by Marco Torres and Daniel Flames.  Torres then scored on a single by Hector Osorio and Flames scored on a delayed double steal of home when Kannapolis threw down to second, but the return throw back home was well late.  In the sixth inning, Hickory once again scored a pair of runs, and once again the rally was started by Torres and Flames, with a two out double by Torres immediately followed by a RBI single by Flames.  Those 8 and 9 hitters in the Crawdads lineup each had three hits on the evening, accounting for exactly half of the Hickory total in the game.  The Crawdads led 5-0 after six innings.  Let's stop burying the lede though as it was the Hickory pitching staff that stole the show on this evening.  After Russell's perfect 3 1/3 innings, Geury Rodriguez came in to pitch and walked the second hitter he faced, ending the perfect game.  He then walked the bases loaded the next inning before being pulled, but notably did not give up a hit.  J.D. McReynolds came in and put out the fire with a strikeout to leave the bases loaded.  Then he struck out two more in a perfect sixth inning.  That took us to the seventh inning with the Cannon Ballers still looking for their first hit.  In came Jormy Novar to pitch for Hickory.  He also walked the second batter he faced, but that was immediately erased by a double play.  Kannapolis did not have another batter reach base.  Novar remained in the game until its conclusion.  In the ninth inning, he faced the top of the Cannon Ballers lineup and induced three consecutive ground outs.  Javier Mogollon grounded out to shortstop to complete the Crawdads combined no-hitter.  Novar was credited with the win since Russell didn't complete the required five innings.  Both, along with McReynolds were lights out in this game though.

What a start to my trip!  I'm as sure as I can be that this is the first no hitter I've ever witnessed live in a professional baseball game.  It has definitely never happened in any of the hundreds of MLB games I've attended.  Unfortunately, it came at the expense of a White Sox affiliate.  Going back to seeing Birmingham get one hit, an infield single by the first batter of the game in Knoxville, this game extended my Sox affiliate hitless streak to an unimaginable 17 innings.  That set the bar quite low for Winston-Salem in Greenville three days later.  But first, I traveled further west in North Carolina to Asheville for a Sunday afternoon game in one of baseball's oldest, most unique stadiums.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: HomeTrust Park in Asheville, NC