Minor league baseball ⚾️ has long been a passion of mine with the count of ballparks visited well into triple digits. Anytime an opportunity presents itself to take in a few innings its hard to pass up.

On my way to the Charlotte Airport I did a quick check of the local schedules and found home games for three teams in the region. The Hickory Crawdads (3pm) and the Knights (5:05). In Gastonia the Honey Hunters get underway at 4:15. Winston-Salem is the visitors in Hickory for today’s version of a different kind of a tripleheader.

Next stop ✋ – Gastonia!

The High Point Rockers are in Gastonia for a showdown with the Honey Hunters.

As was the case in Hickory earlier, the visitors jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in Gastonia. Make that 5-0 after a solo Home Run sailed into the bullpen in left center field.

Another solo dinger for the Rockers pushes the lead to 6-0 in the top of the fifth inning.

Second trip to the Gastonia Ball Park and I am still smiling 😃 about how close the seats behind home plate are to the action.

High Point continues with its version of Home Run Derby as two more solo shots were hit in the time it took me to type that last thought. Score now sits at 8-0 after four and one half innings.

On the bright side for the home team, the pending weather continues to hold off.

Former NY Mets player Jack Reinheimer launches a three run shot that would have made Earl Weaver smile to trim the Rockers lead to 8-3.

Yet another solo dinger for the Rockers makes it 9-3 in the 6th inning. The ball is jumping out of the park today!

A quick tip of the Cap to Sue Bird as her Storm advance to the WNBA semifinals, extending her career for another week.

Unlike the two previous games where the visitors jumped out to big leads, the Charlotte Knights were sailing along with a 6-0 lead over the Syracuse Mets.

Traffic over was delayed by an accident on I-85 but the broadcast team on AM 730 did an excellent job keeping me up to date until I finally arrived at my third and final baseball ⚾️ stadium 🏟 of the afternoon.

Syracuse chipped away until they finally took the lead at 7-6 in the top of the eighth. Charlotte’s MLS soccer ⚽️ team was getting their game underway next door and their pre-game fireworks was a pleasant surprise midgame.

Bottom of the eight and the Knights have retaken the lead on the strength 💪 of a 3 run bomb , making the score now 9-7.

Time to scoot over to the Airport now for the actual reason of the trip down from Boone but I will check back and get some finals soon.

Hickory rallied late before dropping a 10-8 decision to Winston-Salem.

Charlotte wins a nail 💅 biter, 10-8

High Point Rockers have their way versus the Honey Hunters, 13-4

A great day for offense as the three games totalled 18, 18 and 17 runs!