Tourists Claim Third Straight Win Over Drive

Asheville, NC - For the second time in three nights, the Asheville Tourists (25-18) jumped out to a huge lead against the Greenville Drive (21-21) starting pitcher and never looked back, coming away with a 10-3 victory on Monday night.

The Tourists rudely greeted Drive starter Trey Ball (1-3) in his first appearance after coming off the disabled list, scoring five runs on five hits and knocking him out of the game after two-thirds of an inning. Ryan McMahon continued his hot hitting against the Drive in 2014 with an RBI double to begin the scoring. 

RBI singles by Raimel Tapia and Jose Briceno made the score 3-0, and after a Jordan Patterson sacrifice fly, another RBI single, this one by Alec Mehrten, chased Ball from the game.

Asheville extended their lead to 8-0 against Sergio Gomez in the bottom of the second. Tapia singled in run with two outs, and Briceno followed with a line-drive double to left to score a pair.

The Drive plated all three of their runs in the fifth against Johendi Jiminian. Jordan Weems and Bo Greenwell hit back-to-back singles with two outs, and Forrestt Allday followed by lining an RBI single to left to get the Drive on the board. Tzu-Wei Lin then cracked a two-run double to left to cut the score to 8-3.

Trent Blank (2-1) came on for Asheville after Lin's double and fired two and one-third scoreless frames to pick up the victory.

Tapia continued his big night in the sixth when he smacked a two-run homer to right off Gomez. He reached base all five times on Monday, going 3-3 with a pair of walks, three runs and four RBI. Briceno and Wilfredo Rodriguez added three hits each for Asheville, and David Dahl collected two hits as well. Lin and Allday each picked up two hits for Greenville.

The series in Asheville wraps up on Tuesday with a special game time of 11:05 AM. LH Daniel McGrath (0-1, 13.50) will take the mound for the Drive, and RH Zach Jemiola (3-4, 7.17) starts for the Tourists.