Pitching trio dominates in Drive’s 4-0 blanking of IronBirds

Yordanny Monegro struck out seven, and Isaac Stebens and Reidis Sena each struck out four while allowing a collective three hits as the trio propelled the Greenville Drive (25-19, 51-59) to a 4-0 blanking of the Aberdeen IronBirds (23-19, 57-53) on Wednesday night at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium.

Monegro opened Wednesday’s contest by striking out the side in the first after leadoff batter Aron Estrada reached on a fielding error. He proceeded to allow just two hits from the second inning on, before exiting the game after the fifth. The tall righty and highly-regarded prospect is catching fire, having allowed just five runs over his last seven starts and just 16 hits; a body of work that spans 33 innings.

Stebens and Sena fed off the momentum. Stebens recorded a pair of strikeouts in each of his innings of relief allowing a double and a walk as his only blemishes of the night. Sena rang up one in his first inning of relief before punctuating the night by striking out the side in the ninth to secure his second save of the season.

The Drive offseason received a shot in the arm in the return of Mikey Romero from the Injured List as the shortstop recorded two hits on the night including a two-RBI double while also accounting for a run.

The early going was a slog fest for both sides at the plate as Yordanny dealt and Aberdeen starter Zach Fruit held the Drive to one hit in 5 ⅓ innings of work. He did walk three however, the last of those coming around to hurt the IronBirds.

Romero walked in the sixth with one away and Fruit was relieved by Jared Beck. Beck allowed Romero to get to second on a wild pitch before loading the bases on walks to Will Turner and Eduardo Lopez. With two away, Hudson White picked up and RBI with a walk to put the Drive up 1-0.

Beck would not make it to the seventh inning as he was pulled in favor of Jakob Hernandez. Lugo greeted Henandez with a leadoff double and later reached third on a dropped third strike. Standing at third, Lugo eventually made it home on a Turner pop-up single, boosting the Drive lead to 2-0.

Romero chipped in his two-RBI double in the ninth, rewarding Juan Montero and Fraymi De Leon for their single and double respectively. Romero’s bases-clearing double was nearly a homer as he sent it careening off the center field wall. It boosted the lead to 4-0 for the Drive, adding insurance for Sena.

The Drive return to action tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. for game three of the six-game series with Aberdeen. The series is tied, 1-1.