SAL1 Greenville Drive

Crawdads Defeat Drive in Series Opener, 4-2

Published on May 29, 2014 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Greenville Drive News Release


Greenville, SC - It was a night of missed opportunities for the Greenville Drive (26-26) on Thursday. Despite collecting 13 hits, the Drive couldn't turn those into runs and were defeated 4-2 by the Hickory Crawdads (26-26).

The Crawdads did their offensive damage by chipping away slowly at Drive pitching, scoring single runs in four different innings. Despite only scoring one run in the top of the first, they knocked Drive starter Trey Ball out of the game after only retiring two hitters and throwing 41 pitches. A bases-loaded walk to Ryan Cordell gave them the 1-0 lead. Jacob Dahlstrand (3-3) limited further damage by striking out Travis Demeritte to end the inning.

Hickory scored against Dahlstrand in each of the next three innings. Demeritte led off the fourth with a double and later scored on Michael De Leon's RBI groundout.

The Drive tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Jake Romanski singled through the right side to score Carlos Asuaje, who led off with a bunt single, and Manuel Margot, who also singled.

Nick Vickerson almost single-handedly gave Hickory the lead in the fifth. He led off the fifth with a bunt single, moved to second on a groundout, then came in to score when he swiped third and scampered home on the same play when Dahlstrand's pitch went wild.

It was déjà vu for Demeritte in the sixth, as he led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Evan Van Hoosier's single.

Ryne Slack, a native of Ninety Six, got the win for Hickory with three and two-third scoreless innings of relief with three strikeouts to improve his record to 4-1.

Pete Ruiz was a bright spot in relief for the Drive. After coming in and issuing a walk, he set down the remaining seven hitters he faced, five of them via strikeout.

Van Hoosier went 3-5 for Hickory, and Demeritte added a pair of hits. Kendrick Perkins had three hits to lead Greenville, and Margot, Forrestt Allday and Jantzen Witte collected two hits apiece.

Game two of the four-game series begins at 7:05 on Friday night. In a matchup of arms from the Pee Dee area of South Carolina, RH Jamie Callahan (2-4, 6.64), a Dillon native, gets the start for the Drive, while RH Akeem Bostick (2-2, 4.32), a native of Florence, takes the mound for the Crawdads.

Check out the Greenville Drive Statistics

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South Atlantic League Stories from May 29, 2014


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