Media release from the Rome Emperors:
As the end of the 2024 regular season creeps closer and closer, the Rome Emperors and Greensboro Grasshoppers continue a week-long preview of what could be the South Atlantic League’s championship matchup.
Rome skipper Cody Gabella would give the ball to Luis Vargas in the week’s second game. Vargas has been a solid piece of the Emperor rotation since joining the staff in early June. In the course of twelve starts, Vargas has posted a 3.77 earned run average with fifty-nine punch-outs in just fifty-seven and one third of an inning.
Vargas would run into early trouble on Wednesday night, as a P.J. Hilson home run in the top half of the second inning would give the ‘Hoppers an early two run lead. Greensboro would tack on another run in the form of a Mac Guscette passed ball that allowed Duce Gourson to score, putting Rome in a three to nothing hole before the sun set in Floyd county.
The Emperors would strike back in the home half of the fourth inning, as Carlos Arroyo drove home Justin Janas on a deep fly ball to left. Rome’s first run of the game would be Arroyo’s thirteenth RBI of the 2024 campaign.
After tossing three innings of three run ball, Luis Vargas would make way for Cory Wall. Wall, a popular piggy-back option out of the bullpen this season, would keep Greensboro at bay long enough to allow Rome to rattle off three unanswered runs in the home half of the fifth.
E.J. Exposito would get the party started with his twenty-sixth double of the season, plating Jace Grady to bring the game within one run. Justin Janas would follow up just one batter later with a high-bouncing single back up the middle to score Drew Compton and Exposito, giving the Emperors a four run to three lead in the bottom half of the game’s fifth frame.
The Grasshoppers would waste no time, with a Josiah Sightler home run being the equalizer in the top half of the sixth inning. Sightler’s game-tying home run would be his fourteenth of the season.
The two teams would remain locked at four runs each until the top half of the tenth inning when Duce Gourson drove in the extra-innings ghost runner in the form of P.J. Hilson. The Emperors would go down in order in the home half of the tenth inning, giving Greensboro their fourteenth one-run victory of the season.
The five run to four loss is Rome’s sixty-first of the season. The extra-inning loss is their eighth of the season and their sixth at home.
The Emperors and Grasshoppers resume the six-game set Thursday night with a 7:00pm first pitch with Blake Burkhalter on the bump for Rome.
