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

Carilion Clinic Field - Salem RidgeYaks

Delmarva Shorebirds (BAL) @ Salem RidgeYaks (BOS)

May 10, 2026

RidgeYaks 13, Shorebirds 3

W: Leighton Finley
L: Brayan Orrantia

HR: Starlyn Nunez (SAL), Luke Heyman (SAL), Kleyver Salazar (SAL)

Attendance: 1,454
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Salem, VA
Opened: 1995
Capacity: 6,300
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

My Saturday night visit to Knoxville was sandwiched by a pair of stops at Single A Carolina League ballparks in Virginia.  On my way home on Sunday, I stopped in Salem, VA to see a game at Carilion Clinic Field at Memorial Ballpark.  There were a few similarities between the two Carolina League ballparks I visited this weekend that are only about an hour or so apart.  First, both teams were renamed this past offseason.  In Salem's case, they changed their name from the Red Sox to the RidgeYaks, a change I wholeheartedly support as I think branding teams with their MLB affiliate nicknames is boring and a missed opportunity to celebrate the local community.  Additionally, these two ballparks are both situated in sports complexes with multiple stadiums.  And both provide views of rolling hills and/or mountains as both cities are situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Finally, they are also fairly old facilities by current minor league standards.

Carilion Clinic Field is actually significantly newer than its Lynchburg counterpart having been built in the early 90s, but I'm not sure it really feels much newer inside as it doesn't have a lot of the more modern design elements.  When you enter the ballpark, you are immediately upon the main concourse that is well above field level.  That concourse runs underneath the upper level of seating, and also serves as a walkway between the second and third seating levels on the interior.  Each of the three seating levels combine to form what is basically a continuous incline up to the top of the stadium.  While I did not walk up to the top rows of the grandstands, I've got to think those seats are about as far away from the field of play as any I've encountered in the minor leagues.  On this particular afternoon with a small crowd on hand, it made for a rather cavernous feel to the park.  I imagine my impression would have been much different with a bigger crowd.  There are no outfield seats in this park and the grandstands end just a little beyond first and third base on each side.  There is a picnic area further down the third base line though.  A few sections of drink rails with stools bookend the lower levels and there are tabletops with chairs scattered throughout the main concourse.  Personally, I wasn't a fan of their game presentation.  The previous night in Knoxville, I took note of what I felt was an excessive use of the sound machine seemingly after every pitch.  Well, Salem took it to a new level.  What I found especially annoying is that the audio clips they played often seemed to have no context with what was happening on the field.  They also frequently flashed full screen photos on the video board in right field that I think were random photos of players on the opposing team, perhaps from their personal Instagram accounts.  I assume it was an attempt to humorously distract those players, but I found it to be a tad amateurish.  I'm sure other people got a kick out of it though.  The fact that it was such a small crowd for this game maybe didn't help either.  This warm and sunny Sunday afternoon game was on Mother's Day, so the size of the crowd was understandably reduced.

As I'm quickly coming to understand, the quality of baseball at the Low A level can be pretty rough.  Almost everything about this game was rough from a Delmarva perspective.  They did score first though thanks to Salem's quick bout of sloppiness.  RidgeYaks starting pitcher Leighton Finley struck out the first two hitters he faced.  But consecutive errors on a dropped pop-up and boxed line drive allowed a run to score to put the Shorebirds up early.  They would never lead again as the RidgeYaks scored a pair in the bottom of the first.  Delmarva starting pitcher Brayan Orrantia surrendered three straight singles in the first, the second of which was booted in left field by Junior Aybar and then thrown wildly back into the infield, the start of a really rough afternoon in the field for him.  Salem catcher Luke Heyman followed that with a RBI single to left during which Aybar fell down trying to throw back to the infield, allowing Heyman to reach second.  Salem really broke open the game in the second inning, with the Delmarva defense once again giving an assist.  A one out popup to shallow left led to Aybar colliding with shortstop Edwin Amparo, with the ball dropping for a two base error on Amparo.  Orrantia can't totally blame his defense for that inning though because he got hit hard once there were two outs.  Starlyn Nunez crushed a home run to right to give the Yaks a 4-1 lead.  Enddy Azocar followed with a triple to the left-centerfield gap.  Andrews Opata knocked him in with a single up the middle.  Then Heyman crushed a no doubt home run over the tall wall in dead centerfield where the fence distance is listed at 403.  This gave Salem a 7-1 lead and knocked Orrantia out of the game.  Fortunately, the defenses were much cleaner after the first couple innings.  The Delmarva pitching staff continued to struggle though.  Their hefty lefty Riley Cooper had a rough fourth inning.  After a pair of walks around a single and then two outs, Cooper faced Salem first baseman Kleyver Salazar with the bases loaded.  Salazar launched a grand slam into the trees well beyond the left field wall.  That gave the RidgeYaks an 11-2 lead.  Meanwhile, Finley did a nice job pitching to the score.  He got through five innings allowing a pair of runs, only one of which was earned.  A few more inconsequential runs were scored after that.  I was just glad that Delmarva didn't need to resort to using a position player to pitch the last couple innings as often happens in blowouts like this, and especially on Sundays when pitching staffs may be running short on available hurlers.  The RidgeYaks won the game by a final score of 13-3.

That brought 2026 trip number two to a close.  While I put a decent number of miles on my car during both of those weekend trips, it pales in comparison to the huge trip down South I have coming up in June.  I'll spare the details for now other than to say its almost certainly the most ambitious trip I've ever planned.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  Stay tuned for all of that.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, NC