City Stadium - Hill City Howlers

Fredericksburg Nationals (WAS) @ Hill City Howlers (CLE)

May 8, 2026

Nationals 11, Howlers 5

W: Cesar Rojas
L: Angel Perez

HR: Jacob Walsh (FBG)

Attendance: 1,396
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Lynchburg, VA
Opened: 1940
Capacity: 4,281
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

My second trip of the year featured a return to Knoxville, which I skipped on my first trip a month earlier following a rainout in Nashville.  But before heading back to Tennessee, I made a stop in Lynchburg, VA for a Friday night game at one of the oldest ballparks in minor league baseball.  Despite having lived in the Commonwealth of Virginia for nearly a quarter century, this was my first time in Lynchburg.  The city is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, thus the team being named Hill City.  That's actually a recent development as they were the Lynchburg Hillcats in the years leading up to this one.  The team's new owner was looking to freshen up the brand.  While the new name seems reasonable to me, it was perhaps a bit of a rushed process just a few months before the season.  Their primary home caps simply state "Hill City" rather than an interesting logo or even a traditional "HC" look.

The team name isn't the only change going on with this franchise in Lynchburg.  Significant renovations are underway on the ballpark itself as well.  As currently configured, its probably one of the coziest parks I've been to on these minor league adventures.  Although, it is worth noting that this was the first Low A park I'd visited the past few years that wasn't practically brand new.  So I don't have a lot of recent comps to use for it.  Opened in 1940, City Stadium has a very retro feel to it.  Just beyond the stadium on the third base side is a football/soccer stadium, which was built in conjunction with this ballpark in the early 40s.  The covered grandstands in the sections behind home plate actually have some obstructed view seats from the poles holding up the skybox level above.  There are a few rows of reserved seating behind each dugout, with GA bleachers behind them leading up to the main concourse.  One nice feature is the ability to watch the game from that concourse if you so desire, not something that common in the older style parks.  There is a picnic area down the first base line.  The main area that is currently under construction is on the third base side where I assume additional group and party areas are being added.  There are no outfield seats anywhere in this park.  It might have the smallest overall footprint of seating areas of any ballpark I've been to so far.  The playing field is symmetrical with relatively short distances to the outfield wall in all directions, necessitating a fairly high wall all the way around.  There is what I understand to be a relatively new video board in right field with a traditional scoreboard in left.  It was not a huge crowd on hand for this Friday night game, but still a fun environment.

According to some ranking I saw early this season, the Fredericksburg Nationals opened the year with one of the top five prospect rich rosters in all of minor league baseball.  They were the visitors for this Carolina League game featuring two of the league's top teams entering this game.  The FredNats most notable prospect is Eli Willits, last year's #1 overall draft pick who I saw last August during the first week of his pro career.  The very young shortstop had a quiet evening in this one though, going hitless with a walk and a pair of strikeouts.  Several of his teammates picked up the slack though.  Hill City struck first in the bottom of the first with a Juneiker Caceres triple on what looked to me like a routine pop flyball off the bat.  The short outfield dimensions immediately came into play as the ball hit the wall above the right fielders reach.  Caceres then came in to score on a well struck double to right center by the next hitter, Cannon Peebles.  This lead was short lived as the Howlers defense let them down in the top of the second.  Coy James reached on what was ruled an infield single, advancing to second on an errant throw to first.  That was immediately followed by a RBI single up the middle by Nats slugging first baseman Jacob Walsh, a tall left handed hitter drafted out of Oregon last summer.  This was just the start of a big night for Walsh.  The next batter hit a deep fly ball to Caceres in right, which he dropped for a two base error.  Howlers hurler Jacob Zibin then hit the next batter to load the bases with nobody out.  A double play groundout allowed the lead run to score.  Then nine hole hitter Jordan Williams doubled to the gap in left center to give the FredNats a 3-1 lead.  Zibin finally got out of the jam by striking out Willits in a second straight inning.  He would allow another unearned run in the fifth, this time of his own doing as he threw away a bunted ball by Williams back to him that ultimately led to Williams scoring on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.  Meanwhile, Nationals starter Leuris Portorreal was largely effective after the first, but was pulled in the fourth inning.  Fredericksburg seemed to have the game under control until the bottom of the seventh when 7 foot tall lefty Jared Beck took the mound.  A 7' low-slot lefty is quite an interesting profile, but the fact that he's still pitching in Low A at the age of 25 tells much of the story.  He ominously threw his last warmup pitch to the backstop and the wildness didn't stop there.  He walked three batters in the inning, including one with the bases loaded.  A two run bloop single to right by Dauri Fernandez tied the game, although there was confusion as to whether or not the second run counted as Fernandez was thrown out at second trying to stretch it to a double to end the inning.  It took at least a half inning before the scoreboard actually reflected the tied score.  Hill City then took the lead the next inning when Caceres continued his eventful evening by lining one the opposite way over the left fielder's head for a run scoring double.  That gave the Howlers a 5-4 lead heading into the ninth.  Angel Perez came in for the Howlers to try to get the save.  It did not go well for him.  He did not retire any of the first seven hitters he faced.  Here's the sequence:  double, hit by pitch, walk, game tying single by Yeremy Cabrera, lead run scoring walk by Luke Dickerson, another bases loaded walk by James, and then an absolute bomb of a grand slam by Walsh to make it 11-5.  The Howlers went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth giving the FredNats a seven run win in a game they trailed heading into the final inning.

This game was a nice encapsulation of the craziness of lower level minor league baseball.  And it was an entertaining way to start my weekend trip.  The next day it was off to Knoxville where I would get to see a game this time around.

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Next ballpark: Covenant Health Park in Knoxville, TN

First Horizon Park - Nashville Sounds

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Nashville Sounds (MIL)

April 5, 2026

Sounds 7, Knights 5

W: Brian Fitzpatrick
L: Adisyn Coffey

S: Will Childers

HR: Luke Adams (NAS)

Attendance: 4,881
Time of Game: 2 hours, 50 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Nashville, TN
Opened: 2015
Capacity: 10,000
Level: Triple A
League: International

Following Friday night's game in Kentucky, I made the short drive down to Nashville on Saturday morning and spent most of the afternoon exploring the city, this being my first visit to Music City.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and am already itching to make a return trip in the future.  To me, it seemed like a much nicer version of Las Vegas and New Orleans, with the common theme among those three cities being that pretty much everybody goes there to have a good time.  The only negative was that a rainstorm swept through in the late afternoon which wound up postponing the game I had planned on attending that evening.  I had already made a contingency plan though and stuck around for the game the following afternoon instead, which happened to be Easter Sunday.

First Horizon Park is located a little bit west of downtown Nashville, and just a few blocks from the State Capitol building.  The park is aligned to provide a nice view of the skyline beyond right field from most seating areas.  Beyond the park in left field are residential buildings.  The exterior of the park on the third base side includes a restaurant with an outdoor patio which appears to provide great views of the action for those who want to eat, drink and watch baseball without actually buying a ticket.  This park has as large of an outfield concourse as I can recall seeing in a minor league park.  Right field, in particular, has wide open spaces for congregating and having fun.  That area includes games such as cornhole, ping-pong and even a miniature golf course.  This area is situated below and around the gigantic guitar shaped scoreboard in right-center.  I would imagine even someone who doesn't care a lick about baseball could have a good time out there.  A second level around the infield contains a good number of suites and club level seating.  There are also field level suites right behind home plate that I found to be an interesting design choice because it takes up a pretty large amount of prime real estate with not a lot of actual seats.  Perhaps I would have been more understanding of it if I had seen how the space is occupied for a mid-summer game with a larger crowd.  The overall large footprint of the stadium and all of these extra amenities gives First Horizon Park as close to a big league feel as I've experienced in the minor leagues.  It was not a big league sized crowd for this particular game, however.  Which made sense with it being Easter Sunday and the first weekend of April.  Following the Saturday night rain, temperatures dropped pretty significantly, making this a somewhat chilly afternoon.  Still pleasant though with the sun shining.

To begin the season, the Charlotte roster featured three of the White Sox top pitching prospects.  Fortunately, I was able to see one of them in person for the first time for this game:  hard-throwing right hander Tanner McDougal.  It was easy to see why he is so highly touted as he fired upper 90s heat with nasty breaking balls.  That said, he was not overwhelmingly dominant in this outing.  He walked four while striking out three in five innings.  Nashville did not do much damage against him though, only notching two hits and one run.  Meanwhile, the Knights offense did knock around Sounds lefty starter Tate Kuehner a bit, despite having a lineup mostly consisting of left handed hitters.  They scored one run in the third and then added three more in the fourth, highlighted by a two run double down the left field line by Drew Romo.  Nashville got one back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by Luke Adams, who drilled a McDougal fastball to the berm in left-center, cutting the Knights lead down to 4-1.  Charlotte immediately responded with three straight hits off of Kuehner to start the fifth, the last of which was a RBI single by Jacob Gonzalez, ending Kuehner's afternoon.  The Knights recorded eight hits off of the Sounds starter, but then only one hit for the remainder of the game facing the bullpen.  Charlotte's bullpen, on the other hand, was far less effective.  The game completely flipped when the bullpens entered the picture.  The Sounds cut the lead to two with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth.  They scored one on another RBI hit by Adams and another on a sacrifice fly by Brock Wilken.  Then the Knights bullpen completely self-combusted in the bottom of the eighth inning, despite Tyler Gilbert retiring the first two hitters he faced in the frame.  He then allowed an infield single by Luis Lara and hit Adams with a pitch, ending his day.  Adisyn Coffey came in and threw gas on the fire.  The first four batters he faced included three walks, another hit batter and a pair of wild pitches thrown in for good measure.  The Sounds scored four times in the inning with the only hit being an infield single.  The runs scored on a bases loaded hit by pitch, a bases loaded walk and two wild pitches during the same plate appearance, putting Nashville on top 7-5.  It was a truly ghastly inning for the Charlotte bullpen, particularly Coffey.  The Knights did put a couple runners on base in the top of the ninth on an error and a walk, but Will Childers came in to pitch for the Sounds and struck out the only batter he faced to end the ballgame and earn the save.  The Sounds got the 7-5 come from behind victory.

The Saturday rainout cut this trip down to just two games, both of which were lost by White Sox affiliates.  Because I wound up skipping Knoxville on this trip, I now have a return trip planned there very soon, during which I will once again try to see the Sox AA squad, Birmingham, play in Knoxville.  Here's hoping for good weather.

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Next ballpark: City Stadium in Lynchburg, VA

Bowling Green Ballpark - Bowling Green Hot Rods

Winston-Salem Dash (CHW) @ Bowling Green Hot Rods (TB)

April 3, 2026

Hot Rods 4, Dash 2

W: Gary Gill Hill
L: Grant Umberger

S: Jacob Kmatz

Attendance: 2,472
Time of Game: 2 hours, 16 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Bowling Green, KY
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 4,559
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

I have started year three of my Minor League ballpark tour.  The plan for 2026 is to cover the entire Southern League, the remainder of the South Atlantic League, the last Eastern League park I've yet to visit, plus a handful of International League and Carolina League ballparks that cover this general geographic region in the South.  I got things started extremely early this year in the first weekend of April, which was the first weekend of the season with all four levels of full season affiliated minor leagues in action.  In fact, the first game I attended that Friday night was the season opener for those two teams.  That was in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  The reason why I decided to get my tour started early this year was because my White Sox top three minor league affiliates all happened to be playing on the road in Kentucky and Tennessee at ballparks I was planning on visiting sometime this year anyway, so why not take that opportunity to see those three teams in action?  As it turned out though, a Saturday night rainstorm caused me to cut this trip down to just two games.  I knew this was a likely occurrence as the week progressed, so I altered my schedule to make sure I knocked out the two ballparks that were the furthest drive for me and thus not as easy to make up some other time.  That started with a game in Bowling Green where the Hot Rods hosted the Winston-Salem Dash on Opening Night.

Bowling Green is a bit of a geographic outlier for the High A level of affiliated ball.  This is the westernmost franchise in the South Atlantic league.  Prior to the last minor league reorg, they were in the Midwest League, which was also not an ideal fit with this city being a fair bit south of most of that league.  I'm sure it makes some logistical sense for them to be in the South Atlantic League for their parent club of Tampa Bay though.  Bowling Green Ballpark (I assume they are currently in between stadium naming rights deals) is on the smaller side of ballparks I've visited the past few years and has a little bit of a throwback feel to it despite being less than 20 years old.  There are very few outfield seats, none in center or right.  A recent renovation did add a concourse that allows one to make a 360 degree walk around the entire field though.  Almost all of the actual seats are located on the lower level in the infield.  There are suites and a party deck on the second level.  There is a kids area down the first base line featuring a merry-go-round.  One unique quirk is that the roof overhangs a good portion of the main seating area in the infield.  So much so that the netting surrounding the field is close enough to the roof that they also have netting above all of the infield seating areas.  Not a great park if you are hoping to catch a foul ball from a vast majority of the seats.  The playing field has a unique shape to it as well with a concave right-center field wall.  I would think this might lead to some fairly cheap homers in that direction, but none were hit on this night.  On the other hand, the dimensions to dead center and the left-center alley are quite deep.  Both bullpens are located beyond the outfield wall, which I think is pretty rare for A ball.  There is a good-sized video board in right field.  However, one small complaint from me is that it doesn't show pitch speed.  The board on the left field wall has a spot for that, but it wasn't operational for this game.  It was always a roll of the dice to plan an early April trip from a weather perspective.  But at least for this night, it couldn't have been any nicer for my first baseball game of the year.

I was excited to see Winston-Salem in person because they are probably the most prospect laden team in the Sox org to start this season.  And on the other side, all of the Rays affiliates are consistently among the best teams in their respective leagues.  The pitching matchup in this Opening Day tilt was southpaw Grant Umberger for the Dash and righty Gary Gill Hill for the Hot Rods.  Gill Hill was just a couple weeks removed from pitching for Great Britain in the WBC.  Both he and Umberger pitched pretty well in this game, but Umberger was let down by shoddy defense behind him.  Both teams scored a run in their first inning of the season.  The Dash got on the board first on a single blooped over the first baseman's head by Anthony DiPino.  The Hot Rods immediately answered in the bottom half.  Rays top prospect Theo Gillen doubled down the first base line and came in to score on a groundout by Emilien Pitre.  The Dash defense began to unravel in the second.  A two out liner to third baseman Colby Shelton clanked off his glove and allowed the runner to reach second on the first of four errors charged to Winston-Salem on the night.  That runner came around to score on a base hit by J.D. Gonzalez, giving Bowling Green a 2-1 lead.  The Dash tied it up in the third when DiPino, after having been hit by a pitch, scored on a sac fly to deep left during which he had to hustle back to third to tag seemingly having lost track of the number of outs.  Anyway, that was one mistake Winston-Salem got away with.  Not so fortunate in the bottom of the fifth.  On the Hot Rods second single of the inning, Dash right fielder George Wolkow made an errant throw back into the infield that allowed the lead runner to advance two extra bases and score to put Bowling Green back in front.  A second run scored in the frame on a single by Adrian Santana to make it 4-2 Hot Rods.  Wolkow had another adventure in right the following inning, as he dropped a fly ball going back towards the wall on a relatively deep drive.  This fourth Dash error didn't wind up costing them any more runs.  But the offense went quiet the rest of the night.  They only had one hit after the third inning.  The Hot Rods won this one by a final score of 4-2, with the game played in a swift two hours and sixteen minutes.  This was the second straight year that my first minor league game featured Winston-Salem.  At least they kept this game close unlike the home game I saw them play last year.

With that, my first game of 2026 was in the books.  Rain washed away the game I had planned on attending just down the road in Nashville the following night.  There are worse places than Nashville to spend some extra time though as I stuck around there for an Easter Sunday afternoon game.

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Next ballpark: First Horizon Park in Nashville, TN