SAL1 Greenville Drive

Drive Pitching Hooks Catfish in 4-1 Victory

Published on July 25, 2008 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Greenville Drive News Release


Columbus, GA - The Drive's (56-48, 16-18) eight-game road trip started off on the right foot, as they used a balanced attack to defeat the Columbus Catfish (45-57, 18-14) 4-1 in the series opener at Golden Park. Felix Doubront tossed 5.0 strong innings en route to becoming the South Atlantic League's first 11-game winner and Che-Hsuan Lin went 3-for-5 at the plate.

Doubront's (11-6) evening began by fanning the side in the bottom of the first. The southpaw did not allow a Catfish hit until the bottom of the third, when Columbus used three to plate their only run of the ballgame. Greg Sexton doubled with two outs and scored on Stephen Vogt's single two batters later.

The Drive found early success versus Columbus' Jason Ragan (7-8), collecting a pair of hits and capitalizing on two Catfish errors for three runs in the top of the second. The first three batters of the inning all reached base as Oscar Tejeda singled, Juan Apodaca drew a walk, and David Marks hit an RBI-ground rule double. Apodaca then scored as Lin reached on a fielding error and Marks rounded out the scoring by scoring on a wild pitch.

Manny Arambarris extended Greenville's lead to three runs in the top of the fourth with a two-out, solo homer, his sixth of the season. From there the Drive continued to rely heavily on their pitching, which did not allow another Columbus run or hit over the final five innings of the game.

The duo of Kyle Fernandes and Felix Ventura limited the Catfish to just a base on balls, while facing one batter over the minimum. Fernandes tossed 3.0 scoreless innings, striking out two before Ventura added a perfect ninth inning to record his 14th save of the season.

The Drive and Catfish continue their four-game series Saturday evening with first pitch set for 7:05 PM. Left-hander Jose Capellan will toe the rubber for Greenville as Columbus counters with right-hander Alex Cobb.

The Drive return home to Fluor Field on Saturday, August 2nd with a four-game set with the Charleston RiverDogs (affiliate of the New York Yankees). Upstate Fest will highlight the four games as the Drive will honor Spartanburg (August 2nd), Greer (August 3rd), the Golden Strip (August 4th) and Greenville (August 5th is the Drive's annual Green Day). For more information regarding single-game tickets, ticket plans, group outings and luxury accommodations, visit www.GreenvilleDrive.com or call (864) 240-4500.

NOTES: With his stolen base in the top of the fourth, Che-Hsuan Lin now has 32 on the season and trails the Drive franchise record by one...Christian Lara holds the Greenville record with 33 stolen bases during the 2006 season

Check out the Greenville Drive Statistics

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South Atlantic League Stories from July 25, 2008


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