Hickory, NC - A strong start to Monday night's contest almost went for naught, but the Greenville Drive held off a furious comeback by the Hickory Crawdads and came away with a 5-4 victory.The Drive (15-15, 56-43) elected to give Hildemaro Requena (5-3) a spot start following the promotion of
Hickory, NC - A strong start to Monday night's contest almost went for naught, but the Greenville Drive held off a furious comeback by the Hickory Crawdads and came away with a 5-4 victory.
The Drive (15-15, 56-43) elected to give Hildemaro Requena (5-3) a spot start following the promotion of Kyle Hart to Salem earlier in the day, and Requena was outstanding in his first start of the season. He shut out the Crawdads (16-15, 43-58) over five innings while allowing just two hits and striking out five without issuing a walk.
Requena received his support from the Drive via the long ball, as homers in three consecutive innings helped power the offense. Bobby Dalbec struck first, as he cracked a two-run, opposite field homer to right off Walker Weickel (2-3) to break a scoreless tie and put the Drive ahead 2-0 in the fourth. The homer was Dalbec's fifth of the season.
In the fifth, Isaias Lucena led off the frame with a solo shot to left, his third, to extend the lead to 3-0. Tyler Hill got in on the action in the sixth inning, as his sixth homer of the year made the score 4-0 in favor of Greenville.
The Crawdads began to work their way back in the game in the seventh, and they too utilized the home run to do it. Ricky Valencia's two-run homer in the frame put Hickory on the board, and following a Drive pitching change, Andretty Cordero smacked a solo homer to cut the Drive's lead to 4-3.
Santiago Espinal capped a big game with a big hit in the top of the eighth, as his RBI single pushed the Drive lead back to two runs. That run proved crucial in the bottom half when Leody Taveras singled home a run for Hickory to make the score 5-4.
Matthew Gorst entered the game in a jam after Taveras's single, with runners on first and third and one out, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the threat, and he held the one-run lead in the ninth to notch his fourth save.
Espinal went 2-4 at the plate for Greenville, and he stole three bases as well. Hill chipped in with a pair of hits.
The series finale will begin at 7:00 PM on Tuesday in Hickory. The Drive will go for a split of the four-game series with right-hander Bryan Mata (3-2, 2.91) on the mound, and the Crawdads will start left-hander Christian Torres (1-2, 3.50).
