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: 4,648
Time of Game: 2 hours, 29 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.

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Next ballpark: Fluor Field in Greenville, SC