Sports stats



SAL Greenville Drive

Drive Squander Early Lead, Fall 11-10 to Tourists

June 16, 2024 - South Atlantic League (SAL)
Greenville Drive News Release


Jhostynxon Garcia and Ronald Rosario each knocked a pair of doubles and combined for five RBI, but the Greenville Drive (25-38) squandered an 7-0 lead and a 10-8 lead to fall, 11-10 to the Asheville Tourists (27-34) on Sunday afternoon at Fluor Field, splitting the week's series.

Greenville's pitching staff would be stretched to the max on Sunday, as five pitchers took the hill in a nearly three-and-a-half-hour game. On the flipside, the Tourists needed just two pitchers to deliver the victory, using starter Derek True and piggybacker James Hicks.

The day started promising for the Drive who raced out to a 7-0 lead. Garcia chipped in his first RBI-double in the first sending a hard grounder down the third base line to give Greenville a 1-0 lead. He'd come around to score on a Bryan Gonzalez RBI-single and in-turn Gonzalez would score on a Luis Ravelo RBI-double for a 3-0 lead.

THe Drive continued their barrage of starter Derek True in the fourth with a little deja vu as Garcia knocked another RBI double, this one a towering fly ball that scraped off the Greenville Monster and bounded over left fielder Luis Encarnacion. Ronald Rosario slashed a ground-rule double to the right field gap. A throwing-error on a Bryan Gonzalez hard hit grounder to short which Anthony Sherwin sailed over the head of first baseman Garret Guillemette, allowing Rosario to cross the plate for a 7-0 lead.

But a resilient Asheville picked up two runs in the third via two-RBI doubles, one from John Garcia and one from Garret Guillemette, running Dalton Rogers pitch count up to 72 pitches. Rogers exited after the third, allowing four hits, and a walk with two strikeouts.

The Tourists took advantage of forcing Rogers out of the game, slashing six runs off Isaac Stebens in the fifth, the go-ahead run coming via a Narbe Cruz three-run blast over the Greenville Monster to make it 8-7. Stebens finished the night allowing six runs on five hits, four walks, and one strikeout.

Bryan Gonzalez returned the favor however, sending a loud fly ball over the Greenville Monster, knotting the game at 8-8 for his 12th homer of the season. He is now tied with Bowling Green's Xavier Isaac and Greensboro's Shawn Ross for the league lead in home runs.

Greenville picked up two more runs in the sixth via another Rosario ground-rule double and a Juan Chacon RBI-single to make 10-8. But the Tourists scratched across three unanswered with a run in the seventh, eighth, and ninth - the latter coming on a sac-fly with the bases loaded to make it 11-10.

Zach Fogell relieved Stebens, going two innings without giving up a hit, but three walks in the seventh spelled the end of his night, bringing Reidis Sena from the bullpen. Sena would go two innings as well, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and a strikeout being pulled in the ninth for Adam Smith. Smith worked 0.2 innings.

Juan Chacon knocked a double to lead off the ninth, sliding under the tag to give the Drive a chance to knot the game. But Gonzalez went down on strikes, Ravelop popped out to second base, and Liendo grounded out on a close play at first to end the comeback chance.

The Greenville Drive return to action on Tuesday, June 18th at 7:00 p.m. against the first-place Rome Emperors in Romer, GA for the start of a six-game series. The first three games of the series conclude the first half of the 2024 SAL season with the last three being the first games of the second half.

Check out the Greenville Drive Statistics

• Discuss this story on the South Atlantic League message board...

South Atlantic League Stories from June 16, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central