De Paula Shines Once Again at Fluor Field

GREENVILLE- Sometimes pitchers have a stadium they just love to pitch in. Greenville’s Fluor Field is that stadium for Asheville’s lefty Brayan De Paula. On a night where not much went right for the Tourists in their 7-2 loss to the Drive, De Paula came out of the bullpen and pitched 3.1 shutout innings with six strikeouts. Earlier this year at Fluor Field, De Paula pitched 4.2 shutout innings with ten strikeouts.

The Drive took advantage of two Tourists errors in the bottom of the first inning to plate a pair of unearned runs. Zach Cole responded in the top of the second with an RBI triple in his first Tourists at-bat.

Deylen Miley, clearly affected by the extended first inning, struggled to throw strikes in the second. Miley walked four, hit a batter, and the Drive scored two more runs without a hit to take a 4-1 lead.

In the third, Rolando Espinosa led off with a double, went to third on a groundout, and scored on Logan Cerny’s Sacrifice Fly to deep right. It was the last run the Tourists offense produced. De Paula entered in the bottom of the third and kept Asheville within striking distance; however, Greenville put the game away in the seventh with three more runs.

The Tourists pitching staff issued 11 walks, one away from their season-high. The loss also means Greenville clinched the season-series over Asheville for the second straight year. Prior to last year, the Tourists had not lost a season-series to the Drive since 2010.