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SPORTS

Hoppers win third in row

Wednesday, July 23, 2008
(Updated 10:48 am)

GREENSBORO -- It was Christmas in July at NewBridge Bank Park and the Greensboro Grasshoppers came through with a nice present for the home fans with a 7-5 win over the Charleston RiverDogs on Tuesday night.

Ryan Curry tied the score in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run, his third homer in the last seven games.

"I think he's seeing the ball better and he's not trying to do too much," Hoppers manager Edwin Rodriguez said of Curry. "Earlier he was trying to pull everything. Now he's using the whole field. To get your pitch, Curry is a very good inside pitch hitter, you have to show them you can hit the outside pitch. If you don't show them that they won't throw you the inside pitch. He's been doing that lately and it's been paying off."

Greensboro tacked on two additional runs in the second inning and two more in the third to take a 5-1 lead. The runs in the third came on a homer by Tyler Belcher, his first professional home run, on his 23rd birthday.

Starting pitcher Bryan Evans (1-1) pitched five strong innings before faltering in the sixth. Still he picked up his first win of the season thanks to a strong effort by the bullpen.

Jay Voss pitched out of trouble in the sixth inning and fanned three batters in his 12/3 innings of work. Peter Andrelczyk showed why the organization is so high on him with a dominating outing in the eighth inning.

"He's a closer but he just got drafted this year and just signed a month and a half ago," Rodriguez said of Andrelczyk. " It's tough to put him in the closing situation in front of 10,000 fans. We want him to get his confidence back and hopefully we can work him up to the closer's role."

Corey Madden gave up a run in the ninth but earned his fourth save of the season as the Hoppers won their third straight game.

"Not only the winning streak but the way they are playing," said Rodriguez about what pleased him most.

"We're playing solid baseball. The outcome is a byproduct of playing solid baseball -- making the routine plays, pitching to contact and all that."

The two teams close out the series today with a 12:30 p.m. game.

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