Drive Come Up Short Against Lexington, 9-8

Greenville, SC - Friday's game at Fluor Field was all about the big inning. The Lexington Legends had two big innings to the Greenville Drive's one, and that propelled them to a 9-8 victory in front of a crowd of 5,674.

With the score tied at four in the top of the ninth, the Legends exploded for five runs against Drive reliever Myles Smith (0-1). Samir Duenez hit a one-out double to center, and the floodgates opened from there. Humberto Arteaga followed with a single to left, and Duenez scored on a bobble in left field. After a hit-by-pitch, Dominique Taylor lined an RBI single to center. Later in the inning, Ramon Torres hit a sacrifice fly, Michael Antonio dumped an RBI single into right, and a wild pitch scored the fifth Lexington run.

The Drive didn't go down without a fight, however. New Legends reliever Matt Alvarez gave up a leadoff single to Zach Kapstein and then issued two walks to load the bases. Jantzen Witte then lined a single to right to plate Kapstein. After a pair of strikeouts, Tim Roberson grounded a single up the middle to score two runs and cut the lead to 9-8. Alvarez then got pinch hitter Jake Romanski to ground out to end the game.

Tripp Davis (1-0) picked up the win for the Legends with two and one-third innings of relief.

Early in the game, the Drive used the long ball to take a 3-0 lead against Lexington's Jake Junis. For the second night in a row, Bo Greenwell smacked a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first to put the Drive on the board. It was his third homer in the last two games. Two batters later, Witte got in on the action, cracking a long solo homer to left-center.

Witte wasn't done there, as he stepped to the plate in the third and crushed his second solo shot of the game to make the score 3-0.

After struggling to figure out Drive starter Mario Alcantara for the first four innings, the Legends got to him in the fifth for four runs to take a 4-3 lead. Alcantara walked the first two hitters in the frame, but a 6-4-3 double play put him one out away from escaping the inning. From there, however, a two-out walk led to an RBI double by Dominique Taylor. An error at third base prolonged the inning even further, and Ramon Torres then lined a two-run double to the right-field corner.

Greenwell tied the game at four in the seventh with an RBI single to center to score Jimmy Rider, who singled with one out.

Witte went 3-5 with two homers and three RBI in the loss. Greenwell added two hits and a homer, and Kapstein and Roberson contributed two hits apiece. Duenez and Taylor had two hits each for Lexington, and Torres drove in three.

The series continues on Saturday night at Fluor Field at 7:05. LH Cody Kukuk (2-0, 2.50) starts for the Drive, and the Legends will send RH Andrew Edwards (1-0, 1.06) to the hill.