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.

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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.

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Next ballpark: HomeTrust Park in Asheville, NC