Drive take Sunday finale 10-5; earn split with Hickory

Jimenez knocks grand slam; Campbell notches first homer

Gilberto Jimenez slugged a grand slam in the second inning, Drive bats exploded for six runs in the fourth, and a gallery of six pitchers boosted the Greenville Drive (23-31, 59-61) to a 10-5 victory over the Hickory Crawdads (34-19, 61-53) in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.

After a tough start to the week, which saw the Crawdads win the first two games of the series by a combined score of 16-7, the Drive rallied to pick up three wins in the last four games to earn a split with the second-half leading Crawdads.

The Drive fell behind early, and the week seemed destined to end how it began as Max Acosta sent a solo shot over the left field wall and Abimelec Ortiz chipped in an RBI-single to give the Crawdads a 2-0 lead after the first. The two runs came off spot-starter Jordan DiValerio who ultimately tossed 1.2 innings before giving up the mound to reliever Nate Tellier. Tellier would go on to allow just one hit in 2.1 innings of work while striking out two.

Tellier’s efforts were bolstered in the second as Drive bats found patience at the plate. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for Jimenez, and he’d rip his grand slam to put the Drive up 4-2.

Greenville, which had not scored more than five runs in two weeks, found their rhythm in the sixth. Kristian Campbell notched his first homer in his Drive career, while Cutter Coffey and Ronald Rosario chipped in RBI-singles before Tyler Miller slashed a double to right field and cleared the bases to round out the scoring and put the Drive up 10-2.

Caleb Bolden would be the last Drive pitcher to pitch more than an inning in the game as he pitched two, allowing one run on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The lone run would come via a Cameron Cauley RBI-single in the bottom of the sixth.

Gabriel Jackson pitched the seventh, allowing Hickory’s final two runs in the contest, one via a Cody Freeman RBI-single and a Geisel Cepeda groundout that scored Abimelec Ortiz from third to make it 10-5.

Robert Kwiatkowski and Brock Bell rounded out the pitching duties for the Drive, each tossing a scoreless and hitless inning to preserve the Drive’s victory. ,

The Greenville Drive (Boston Red Sox) return for their final regular season homestand at Fluor Field as they take on the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets) for six-games beginning Tuesday, August 29 at 7:05 p.m.