SAL1 Greenville Drive

Drive Split Twinbill Saturday with the Crawdads

September 3, 2011 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Greenville Drive News Release


Hickory, NC - The Drive (75-62, 38-30) used a late offensive surge in game one of Saturday's doubleheader versus the Hickory Crawdads (79-56, 39-28) to garner a 9-2 victory.

However, Greenville's bats weren't present in the second game of the

twinbill, as they were shutout, 3-0, splitting the pair of games at LP

Frans Stadium.

With the Drive clinging to a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth inning of the first game,

Xander

Bogaerts sparked his team with a solo homer - his 16th of the season - with a two-out blast.

An inning later, Greenville nearly batted around as they sent eight batters to the plate, en route to tacking on five more runs.

Jackie Bradley, Jr. tallied his second hit of the game - his first two hits since joining the Drive on Thursday - with a bunt single.

Coupled with a throwing error on the play, the former South Carolina Gamecock standout advanced all the way to third before scoring on David

Renfroe's double.

Renfroe eventually scored on a wild pitch, and Christian Vazquez put the icing on the cake with a two-out,

three-run homer.

Kyle Stroup tossed 5.0 strong innings for the Drive, evening his record to 6-6 on the year.

The right-hander allowed a pair of runs on five hits and a walk, while fanning four before turning the game over to Andrew Jones.

Jones picked up his second save of the season, hurling 2.0 perfect innings out of the bullpen, striking out three.

After tallying nine hits in the game one, the Drive managed just a pair of singles off the bats of

Xander

Bogaerts and Henry Ramos in the second game.

A second round selection of the Texas Rangers in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, and a former star at Clemson University, southpaw Will Lamb (2-0)

struckout eight over 5.0 shutout innings, allowing a hit and issuing one walk.

The Crawdads scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by South Atlantic League MVP

Jurickson

Profar's leadoff homer.

While Hickory scored their third run in the bottom of the fifth, their output in their first at bat proved to be enough.

Scott

Swinson (5-5) suffered the loss in the nightcap, surrendering all three runs on eight hits over 4.1 innings.

Michael Olmsted held the Crawdads scoreless over the final 1.2 innings for Greenville.

The Drive and Crawdads meet again on Sunday with first pitch set for 5:05 PM from North Carolina.

Right-hander Keith Couch (6-5, 3.33 ERA) will toe the rubber for Greenville, while Hickory counters with right-hander Luke Jackson (5-5, 5.22 ERA).

Aided by a victory by the Savannah Sand Gnats, the Drive's "Magic Number" to clinch a playoff spot is down to 2 (Augusta and Rome were tied 8-8 in the 13th inning at time of sending this out; a

GreenJackets loss would lower the "Magic Number" to 1).

With the Drive, as well as the Augusta

GreenJackets, and Asheville Tourists all in contention for the second playoff spot, fans will now play the waiting game to see if playoff baseball will be coming to Fluor Field.

Tickets for the potential playoff games at Fluor Field - September 7, 15-17 - are currently on sale and can be purchased by visiting the Fluor Field Box Office, calling charge-by-phone at (864) 240-4528, or by logging onto www.GreenvilleDrive.com .

Check out the Greenville Drive Statistics



South Atlantic League Stories from September 3, 2011


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