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

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

Covenant Health Park - Knoxville Smokies

Birmingham Barons (CHW) @ Knoxville Smokies (CHC)

May 9, 2026

Smokies 4, Barons 3

W: Jackson Kirkpatrick
L: Carson Jacobs

S: Vince Reilly

HR: Ariel Armas (KNX), Owen Ayers (KNX)

Attendance: 5,663
Time of Game: 2 hours, 26 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Knoxville, TN
Opened: 2025
Capacity: 7,448
Level: Double A
League: Southern

The main theme of my 2026 minor league ballpark tour is a trip around the Southern League.  I intend to see games in all eight Southern League ballparks this summer, with all but one of them on the docket for my June trip down south.  The one exception is Knoxville, where I had intended to stop on my way back from Nashville in April.  Actually, I did spend a night in Knoxville on that trip, but did not go to a game.  So I made a return trip in May.  The Smokies franchise returned to the city of Knoxville in 2025 after calling Kodak, TN, about 20 miles to the east, their home for a couple decades.  They returned to the city in a brand new ballpark located just a few blocks northeast of the main downtown area, in a neighborhood that is being revitalized with the ballpark as the central figure of that project.

Covenant Health Park is easily one of the nicest minor league parks I've visited to date, particularly at the AA level.  The interior of the park is modern in every way.  However, it does seem to pay a little bit of homage to the Smokies parent club of the Cubs by providing great views of the game from points outside the stadium like the rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field.  Here, there is a brand new condo building on the exterior of the park on the first base side where residents could have as good of a view of the game as most of the people inside the park.  Except it appears very few of the units on the ballpark side have been sold so far because there were no lights on in any of them from what I could tell.  There were a number of people watching from a lower terrace of that building though.  Meanwhile, beyond the premises on the left field side are apartments that also provide balcony views of the action for its residents.  Inside the park, there is a massive concourse above the main seating areas that has as impressive of a selection of concessions as I've seen in a minor league park.  There is a walkway encircling the entire field.  Uniquely, in center field, that walkway takes you over a bridge with a creek running below.  I would imagine that creek has more than a few baseballs at the bottom of it because it is definitely reachable for left-handed pull hitters.  There are picnic and party areas down each baseline and a large bar in right field with a water tower structure next to it that is a nod to the neighborhood's industrial past.  Near that bar in right-centerfield is a massive video board, uniquely shaped like the state of Tennessee.  A vast majority of the seats are on the playing field level in foul territory.  Other than those hanging out at the bar in right or taking a walk around the outfield concourse, there are no actual seating areas in the outfield from which to watch the game.  There is a second level that is almost exclusively luxury seating.  I was really impressed with this park.  It has me excited to see a couple other brand new AA ballparks that I plan to visit later this summer (Chattanooga, Richmond) to see if they are all this nice.  On top of that, this was also an extremely nice night for baseball with a huge crowd on hand to watch Chicago's two AA affiliates square off on a Saturday night.

This was my first of a scheduled three looks at Birmingham this year.  The two time defending Southern League champs are probably a longshot to make it three in a row because most of the Sox prospect talent is consolidated in High A and AAA right now.  The Barons did get a few callups from Winston-Salem shortly after this game though.  It was a very rough night at the plate for them in this one.  Samuel Zavala started the game with an infield single that the second baseman wasn't able to corral.  That would be the Barons only hit of the night.  Smokies starter Tyler Schlaffer, who had been having a rough season up to this point, was dominant on this night.  He pitched five scoreless innings allowing only that one infield hit, plus two walks, while striking out seven.  He actually faced the minimum in those five innings because the hit and one of the walks were erased on caught stealings, while the other walk was followed by a double play.  Barons starting pitcher Connor McCullough had a decent outing as well.  But he needed to be nearly perfect and was not that.  In the bottom of the second, Alex Ramirez lined a double over the centerfielder's head for the first of three hits for him.  He came up a home run shy of the cycle.  That was immediately followed by Ariel Armas hitting a bomb into the Smokies bullpen in deep left-center to give Knoxville a 2-0 lead.  That was Armas' first home run of the season.  Neither team would score again until the sixth inning when both starters had been pulled.  Jackson Kirkpatrick took the mound in the sixth for the Smokies.  After retiring the first batter he faced, he then walked three straight Barons to load the bases.  A RBI groundout by Jacob Burke put the Barons on the board.  Then Alec Makarewicz hit a slow chopper to third that Devin Ortiz made a wild throw to first allowing two runs to score.  The Barons scored three in the inning without the benefit of a hit to take a 3-2 lead.  The lead did not last long.  Leading off the bottom half, catcher Owen Ayers lined a pitch just over the wall in right field to tie the game.  It capped off a big night for Ayers on both sides of the ball as he also threw out a pair of potential base stealers.  Following a Barons pitching change, Ramirez hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to deep right that right fielder Drake Logan completely lost, allowing the ball to drop over his head and Ramirez to reach third safely for a generous triple.  It seemed too dark at the time to be a twilight vision issue, so I'm not exactly sure what happened.  Ramirez would later come in to score on a sacrifice fly by Edgar Alvarez who lined out to center for the second out of the inning, where centerfielder Burke started jogging in thinking the inning was over.  Probably wouldn't have been able to throw out Ramirez anyway, but not a good look in that inning for the Birmingham outfield.  That gave Knoxville a 4-3 lead heading into the late innings.  The Barons didn't mount much of a charge in those final three frames.  Smokies relievers struck out seven of the final nine batters they faced, with five of them coming on called strike threes.  Birmingham seemed frustrated by the home plate ump, but at some point you need to swing the bat if he's going to keep calling strikes.  In addition to throwing a one-hitter, Knoxville pitchers also struck out 14.  Pretty rough night at the plate for the Barons as they dropped this game by a final score of 4-3.  Amusingly, the win was credited to Kirkpatrick, who was by far the Smokies least effective pitcher.

While I was disappointed with the result of the game, it was a very enjoyable evening in Knoxville.  I now look forward to seeing what the rest of the Southern League ballparks look like, because this one will be tough to beat.  After one evening in Tennessee, it was back to Virginia for a Sunday afternoon game in Salem the following day.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Carilion Clinic Field in Salem, VA