Drive Hold Off Suns, 6-5
Hagerstown, MD - Saturday's series opener between the Greenville Drive (9-27, 43-62) and the Hagerstown Suns (23-13, 67-39) featured lots of baserunners on both sides. Despite being outhit 13-9, the Drive were able to take a lead in the middle innings and hold on late for a 6-5 win.
The bottom of the order delivered the big hits for the Drive in the top of the sixth with the score tied at four. Zach Kapstein drew a one-out walk against Andrew Cooper (7-3) and stole second. Hector Lorenzana followed by lining the go-ahead RBI single and taking second on the throw home. Aneudis Peralta then lined an RBI single of his own to make the score 6-4.
Wilmer Difo's RBI groundout in the seventh cut the Drive lead to 6-5, and the Suns made things interesting against Jonathan Aro in the ninth by loading the bases with two outs, but Aro punched out Jimmy Yezzo to end the game, securing his seventh save.
The Suns jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Teddy Stankiewicz after the first two innings. They knocked three consecutive singles leading off the first, with the third of the RBI variety by John Wooten. In the second, the Suns received an RBI single by Rafael Bautista, an RBI groundout by Difo and an RBI double by Wooten.
Stankiewicz settled in from there, keeping the Suns off the board in his final four innings of work to earn his team leading seventh win of the season.
Jake Romanski plated the Drive's first two runs of the game in the third when he smacked a two-run double to right off Hagerstown starter Wirkin Estevez.
In the fourth, Lorenzana's RBI single plated Manuel Margot, who walked, swiped second for his 31st steal of the year, and moved to third on Kapstein's single. Peralta followed with an RBI groundout to knot the game up at four.
Lorenzana, Peralta and Romanski all collected two hits and two RBIs for Greenville. Hagerstown received three-hit nights from Bautista and Wooten, while Cody Dent and Narciso Mesa added two hits apiece.
Game two of the series begins at 5:05 on Sunday afternoon in Hagerstown. RH Jason Garcia (0-1, 7.11) gets the start for the Drive, while the Suns will send LH Brett Mooneyham (2-0, 3.86) to the mound.