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.

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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.

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Next ballpark: Carilion Clinic Field in Salem, VA

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.

Photo Album

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