Cody's Strong Pitching Not Enough to Spark the Offense

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists were shutout for the second straight game by the Greenville Drive on Thursday night. Prior to yesterday Asheville had only been shutout once all season. Greenville ran away with the game late and won by a final score of 13-0.

Despite the lopsided final tally, the Tourists and the Drive were engaged in a pitcher’s duel for a majority of the night. Asheville was led by their starting pitcher, Danny Cody. The Akron, Ohio native surrendered a run in the top of the first inning before shutting down the league’s top offense for the next four frames.

Trailing 1-0 entering the sixth, Cody was pulled after hitting the leadoff man. Greenville was able to string hits together against Asheville’s relievers and scored ten runs between the sixth and the eighth. The Tourists put in a position player, Bryan Arias, to pitch the ninth.

Asheville’s offense struggled against Greenville’s starter Brian Van Belle. The Tourists recorded only two hits over six innings off Van Belle. A pair of Drive relievers, Dylan Spacke and Oddanier Mosqueda, pitched the final three innings to preserve the shutout.

Freudis Nova had the Tourists lone extra-base hit of the game, a double to lead off the eighth inning. Nova was later thrown out at the plate attempting to score on Carlos Machado’s single.

The Tourists will attempt to break out the bats on Friday night with the Drive in town for game four of the series. The first pitch is slated for 6:35pm.