Sixth Inning Sinks Tourists in Greenville

GREENVILLE- The Asheville Tourists fell to the Greenville Drive 7-4 on Tuesday night in large part due to a four-run sixth inning that turned a 4-2 lead into a 6-4 deficit. Asheville’s starting pitcher, Tyler Brown, pitched a season-high five innings let his defense make plays behind him by only issuing one walk.

Joe Perez put the Tourists in front 1-0 in the top of the first inning with a solo Home Run to the left of the batter’s eye. In the top of the second Asheville loaded the bases with no outs; however, Greenville’s Brayan Bello induced a double-play ball followed by a ground out to limit the damage to just one run.

The Drive plated the next two runs of the ballgame with solo Home Runs from Tyreque Reed in the second and Devlin Granberg in the third. Brown bounced back with a pair of scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth to keep the game tied at two.

Scott Schreiber then gave the Tourists a one-run lead in the top of the sixth with a monstrous leadoff Home Run, his team leading sixth bomb of the season. Wilyer Abreu and Luis Santana followed the Schreiber long ball with back-to-back singles and Abreu scored later in the inning on a Drive throwing error.

R.J. Freure entered the game in the bottom of the sixth and was the victim of some tough luck. The very first batter doubled on a pop up that the Tourists lost in the lights. Freure struggled with his control afterwards. The Drive worked four walks in the inning and took a 6-4 lead with a run scoring groundout, a two-run single, and a wild pitch.

Greenville added another run in the seventh inning which was more than enough for their bullpen. The Tourists put a pair of runners aboard in the top of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate; however, Asheville was unable to cash in.

The Tourists have now lost three straight following their season-high five game win streak. Asheville will attempt to bounce back on Wednesday night with game two versus the Drive scheduled for 7:05pm.