Drive Move to First Place With Saturday's Win
Devers and Bautista shine in victory
Charleston, SC - Round one of the Battle of the Palmetto State officially goes to the Greenville Drive (20-15), as they clinched a victory of the four-game series against the Charleston RiverDogs (19-16) with a 3-1 win on Saturday night. The victory also pushed the Drive into first place outright for the first time in 2015.
Greenville's starting pitching has been outstanding over the past week, and Saturday was no exception. In his first start with the Drive, Denny Bautista (1-0) took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finished his evening with six shutout frames and two strikeouts.
A two-run fourth inning gave the Drive all the offense they would need. Jordan Procyshen laced a one-out single against Luis Cedeno (3-2) and came in to score when Rafael Devers lined a double to center. A Charleston error on a groundball by Carlos Mesa allowed a second run to score.
The game would remain 2-0 until the bottom of the eighth, when the RiverDogs struck for their lone run of the evening. Renzo Martini began the frame with a single, moved to second on a walk, was sacrificed to third and came home on Jorge Mateo's RBI groundout.
Devers provided the Drive with an insurance run in the ninth when he singled home Ben Moore, who led off the frame with a double. Devers led the Greenville offense by going 2-3 with two RBI, and Moore and Mike Meyers added two hits each.
The Drive will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon in Charleston, with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 PM. RH Michael Kopech (1-2, 3.86 ERA) will take the mound for the Drive, and the RiverDogs will start RH Joey Maher (1-2, 5.13 ERA).