The Winston-Salem Dash played well all season, but got hot at the perfect time, sweeping through four games over two playoff series to claim the 2026 South Atlantic League title with a 2-0 win over the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Tuesday.
A stunning start from Grant Umberger — his second in two tries in these playoffs — that paced the low-scoring triumph. The southpaw is not highly-regarded as a prospect — outside of South Side Sox, that is, as we placed Umberger at No. 26 in our 2026 Top 100. Umberger twirled
7 ⅔ scoreless innings, with a divine line of 11 strikeouts against just three singles, three walks and two hit batsmen, just to keep the Hoppers honest. He was buff through 107 pitches before giving way to Carlton Perkins with runners on first and second and two outs in the eighth.
Perkins remained for the clinching bottom of the ninth, striking out the side for the win.
Umberger also tossed the clincher at the Bowling Green Hot Rods last week, going 6 ⅓ innings of one-run ball, again with three hits and 11 Ks.
While Umberger is an obvious “MVP” candidate for the Dash playoffs, based on strapping his teammates on his back and carrying them to wins in both playoff series, let’s not overlook some big bats, either. Javier Mogollón, James Taussig, Ely Brown all were terrific this postseason, but tonight’s win was paced by Nick McLain, with a home run for the second and final run of the game for W-S, adding a walk and stolen base to lead off the game to put early pressure on the Grasshoppers.
That pressure meant more than appears, and the Dash had began the contest with four strikeouts, squandering McLain’s peskiness on the basepaths. The entire Winston-Salem offense packed itself into the fifth inning, where catcher Rylan Galvan and McLain both socked solo shots.
The Dash finished the season 73-58, but it was a 35-30 mark in the second half (and tie for first place) that squeezed them into the playoffs. The club was expected to get a quick flush from the divisional round, given that it faced the juggernaut of the Sally South, the Bowling Green Hot Rods — who at 82-48 sported the fourth-best record among the 120 full-season MiLB clubs.
