Drive trio tosses season’s second no-hitter, sixth all-time in 4-0 victory over Blue Rocks

Yordanny Monegro, Cooper Adams, and Isaac Stebens combined to toss the Greenville Drive’s second no-hitter of the season, second in the South Atlantic League second-half, second in less than a month, and sixth all-time in franchise history on Thursday night at Fluor Field, dispatching the Wilmington Blue Rocks, 4-0.

Tonight marked the first no-hitter at Fluor Field since September 2, 2021, which saw the Drive’s Jeremy Wu-Yelland, Jose Espada, Oddanier Mosqueda, and Jacob Wallace combining for the franchise’s fourth no-hitter.

Monegro set the tone early, ringing up six in five innings of work before Adams tossed the sixth through eighth innings ringing up two. The Drive turned to Stebens for the final frame, which as no-hitters tend to go, featured dramatic anticipation.

Stebens walked Matt Suggs to lead off the frame, before inducing a double-play off the bat of Phillip Glasser. Glasser’s grounder slipped up the middle destined for the outfield but shortstop Fraymi De Leon snagged the ball on the second base side, tapped second base and fired over to Eduardo Lopez at first.

Gavin Dugas launched the first pitch of his at-bat, sending it towering into the night, but the ball held up, drifting downward into the waiting mitt of left fielder Juan Chacon, who made the catch a step shy of the warning track.

Juan Montero, called up to Greenville three days prior, caught his first game behind the plate for the Drive, a debut he’s unlikely to forget.

The Drive’s previous no-hitter this season came in a seven-inning contest on July 11 at AdventHealth Stadium in Rome, Georgia, a 7-0 victory in which Dalton Rogers, Wu-Yelland, and Zach Fogell combined to toss the franchise’s fifth no-hitter.

Like most no-hitters, the Drive defense played a key role in the outing. In the eighth with one away, Lopez made a diving stop at first, flipped the ball to Adams covering first just in time to beat runner Joe Naranjo. Two pitches later, Jhostynxon Garcia made an over-the-head catch at the last second before he softly collided with the center field wall.
As for the offense, Allan Castro didn’t wait long to get the Drive on the board in the second, crushing the fourth pitch of his at bat into the Drive VisionBoard in right field for the 1-0 lead and his 13th homer of the season.

Greenville continued to make life difficult for starter Jose Atencio, ultimately racking up seven hits on the night and two homers off the righty. Jhostynxon Garcia added a two-out RBI single in the third, scoring Andy Lugo who singled to leadoff the frame. The leadoff single marked Lugo’s first High-A knock as the young righty out of the Dominican Republic was called up to Greenville earlier in the day.

Lopez added his sixth homer of the year on the first pitch of his at-bat in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 3-0. Chacon followed up Justin Riemer’s leadoff single in the fifth with a single of his own that ended up getting him all the way to third as right fielder Roismar Quintana misjudged the ball and let it roll under his glove all the way to the right field wall. Riemer scored from first to boost the lead to 4-0.

Tempers ran hot in the bottom of the seventh as reliever Luke Young’s first pitch to Garcia ran up and hit Garcia in the shoulder. Garcia took exception as we walked down the first base line as both Garcia and Young exchanged words. Garcia took a step toward the mound, causing both dugouts and bullpens to clear though coaches and umpires were able to step into the fray before tempers flared too hot.

The Drive return to action on Friday, August 2nd at 7:05 p.m. for game four of the six-game series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Drive lead the series, 2-1.