Drive drop third straight in Wilmington; fall 6-4 Saturday

The Greenville Drive (4-10) added a run in the eighth and one in the ninth and put the tying run at the plate with two outs in the ninth but the Wilmington Blue Rocks (10-4) hung on to down the Drive 6-4 Saturday night.

A pitchers’ duel ruled the game for much of the early going as the teams combined for just five hits through five innings as Drive starter Hayden Mullins and Wilmington starter Riley Cornelio dealt from the mound.

The Drive would strike first in the second, however, as a walk and fielding error put Juan Chacon and Luis Ravelo on third and first respectively before Miguel Ugueto grounded into a double play that scored Chacon for the 1-0 lead.

John McHenry answered for the Blue Rocks in the bottom half of the second, chipping in a sac-fly after base runners reached previously on a hit-by-pitch, single, and a catcher interference call. The Drive broke the tie in the fourth on a Tyler Miller double, scoring Chacon again to make it 2-1.

But the fifth inning would be the turning point in the game as Blue Rocks ultimately took the lead for good. A Jonathan Thomas sacrifice bunt back to Mullins allowed T.J. White to score and knot the game. It’d be the last batter Mullins faced as he officially worked 4.2 innings, allowing three hits, three runs while striking out six. Gabriel Jackson took over for Mullins, loading the bases thanks to two walks. His second wild pitch of the inning would score Marcus Brown to make it 3-2 Blue Rocks before picking up the final out on a strikeout.

After a 1-2-3 inning for Jackson in the sixth, the seventh inning would be fatal for Jackson as he loaded the bases. Viandel Pena singled, Daylen Lile chipped in a sac-fly, and Kevin Made smacked a double in succession to add three more runs for Wilmington to make it 6-2. Jackson finished the night allowing two runs on three hits while walking three.

The Drive tried to mount a comeback as Ugueto chipped in a sac-fly in the eighth and Allan Castro slapped a sharp RBI-single in the ninth to cut the lead to 6-4. Ronald Rosario would come to the plate representing the tying run with two outs in the ninth and shoot a hard liner to the right field gap, but a diving catch by Thomas prevented any more thoughts of a comeback and preserved the Blue Rocks 6-4 victory.

The Greenville Drive return to action tomorrow, April 21 at 1:05 p.m. for the finale of the series in Wilmington. The Blue Rocks clinched the series victory with Saturday's win, marking the third series in a row the Drive have lost.