Romero homers twice as comeback falls short in Sunday finale

Mikey Romero blasted a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to draw the Greenville Drive (18-12, 44-52), to within a run, but Jackson Kelley worked around two-runners on the base paths to cling to the Hickory Crawdads’ 6-5 victory in the series finale at L.P. Frans Stadium.

The Drive’s final trip to Hickory with the announcement of the Crawdads’ departure from the High-A South Atlantic League to the Single-A Carolina League to make room for the new High-A addition in the Hub City Spartanburgers, was bookended by Crawdads’ victories; though the Drive took the series 4-2 with four straight victories from July 25th - July 27th.

The Drive have now won four straight series, including the first two since the All-Star Break. The Drive currently sit 1.5 games back of the Bowling Green Hot Rods for first place in the SAL South Division.

Sunday’s game was a case of too-little-too-late for the Drive as they fell behind 6-0 after the fourth inning. Starter Blake Wehunt gave up six runs on eight hits with three strikeouts, but relievers, Bryce Bonnin and Zach Fogell each worked a pair of perfect innings, striking out four and two batters respectively.

Benjamin Blackwell added a sac-fly in the second and Cam Cauley snapped a line rive homer to left field to score two, to open up the 3-0 hole. The same sacrifice and homer combo worked again for the Crawdads in the third, this time coming off the bats of Yeison Morrobel and Anthony Gutierrez for a 5-0 lead.

Hickory rounded out their scoring in the fourth as Sebastian Walcott reached on a fielding error from Ahbram Liendo that allowed Cauley to score from third.

But down 6-0, Bonnin and Fogell provided the pitching spark that nearly brought the Drive to a comeback. Greenville had secured just two hits through four innings before Romero knocked his first of two homers on the day in the fifth.

From Allan Castro’s double in the fourth until Romero’s final homer in the ninth, the Drive rattled off ten unanswered hits, though they wouldn’t begin to close the gap until the eighth inning.

Miguel Bleis plated Romero on a groundout in the eighth and Juan Chacon singled to score Allan Castro to cut the lead to 6-3.

Romero’s homer cut the lead to two with one away and back-to-back walks to Justin Riemer and Bleis put the go-ahead run on base. But Castro popped out and Chacon struckout to give the Crawdads the win.

The Drive return to action on Tuesday, July 30th at 7:05 p.m. for the start of a six-game series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, affiliate of the Washington Nationals.