Drive, Crawdads bout suspended in rain-soaked eighth

The Greenville Drive’s Wednesday night contest with the Hickory Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium was suspended in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Drive clinging to a 5-4 lead with two outs. The game is slated to resume at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Rain soaked the ballpark in Hickory, causing a lengthy delay before the game was ultimately suspended as water welled up in the infield and outfield.

The Greenville Drive had just taken a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth frame, thanks to back-to-back doubles from Allan Castro and Miguel Ugueto, the latter a ground-rule double that hopped the left-centerfield wall to score Castro.

Dalton Rogers tossed five innings for the Drive in another consecutive solid start for the lefty. He allowed two runs on three hits, issuing a lone walk while striking out five.

The start marked the third straight superb start for Southern Miss alumn, who has now tossed a collective 14 innings allowing six hits and four runs with 15 strikeouts to five walks in those three starts.

Hickory’s Sebastian Walcott continued to be an offensive catalyst, springing for a two-out single in the first, stealing second, and scoring on a Luis Mieses double to open up a 1-0 lead.

In Tuesday’s contest Walcott knocked the go-ahead three run homer for the Crawdads that ultimately was the difference in the contest.

Yosy Galan boosted the lead to 2-0 in the second as he reached on a fielder’s choice with Anthony Gutierrez on third. Gutierrez scored on the play as first baseman Byran Gonzalez raced down to the third base line as the Drive caught Gutierrez in a rundown, but Gonzalez impeded Gutierrez’s path to home plate, forcing home plate umpire Brandon Schmitt to rule interference on the play and award Gutierrez the plate.

Allan Castro knotted the game at 2-2 in the fourth after Hickory starter Alejandro Rosario issued just one hit through three innings. Ronald Rosario and Jhostynxon Garcia knocked a two-out single and double respectively to set up Castro’s line drive single to left field.

After giving up the two runs, Rogers sent down the next nine batters before turning the ball over to Gabriel Jackson in the sixth. Walcott continued his momentum at the plate, knocking the second pitch of his at-bat over the left field wall to put the Crawdads back in front, 3-2.

The Drive proved resilient however, taking their first lead in the ballgame in the seventh as Rosario slapped a two-out, two-RBI single with the bases loaded to Drive in Bryan Gonzalez and Mikey Romero for a 4-3 lead.

Gleider Figuereo quickly evened the game in the seventh with a homer off reliever Gabriel Jackson before Ugueto put the Drive back in front in the next frame.