Drive Top Braves in Extras, 4-3
Rome, GA - Extra innings were required in Tuesday's contest between the Greenville Drive and the Rome Braves, but the Drive scored twice in the top of the 10th and held off a Braves rally in the bottom half to come away with a 4-3 victory.
The Drive (5-7, 42-39) took advantage of Matt Custred (3-3) struggling to find the strike zone, as a bases-loaded walk by Michael Chavis, the fourth free pass of the inning, made the score 3-2 in favor of Greenville. Tate Matheny followed with a sacrifice fly to tack on another run.
That run proved to be crucial, as the Braves (7-6, 34-48) made things interesting against Victor Diaz. They put four baserunners on in the frame, including an RBI single by Alejandro Salazar that cut the Drive lead to one, but a baserunning blunder on that play gave the Drive a big out. Diaz then struck out Luke Dykstra swinging to end the game and record his fourth save.
Marc Brakeman (5-4) gave the Drive three terrific innings of relief to get the win, as he allowed just one hit while striking out three.
Runs came at a premium against the starting pitchers on Tuesday, but each team was able to get a run on the board in the first inning. Luis Alejandro Basabe led off the top half with a triple and came home on a Touki Toussaint wild pitch. Rome answered in the bottom half when Austin Riley smacked a Jose Almonte pitched over the wall in left-center for a solo homer.
The Braves took a 2-1 lead in the third on Justin Ellison's RBI double that scored Dykstra, who hit a single with one out.
Doubles by Jeremy Rivera and Josh Ockimey in the fifth allowed the Drive to tie the game at two, where the score remained until extras.
Both Almonte and Toussaint allowed two runs over six innings in their starts, with Almonte striking out four and Toussaint punching out six.
Chavis was the lone Drive player with a two-hit night.
The rubber game of the series begins at 1:00 PM on Wednesday in Rome. Right-hander Anderson Espinoza (4-7, 3.95) takes the mound for the Drive, and the Braves will counter with left-hander Ricardo Sanchez (4-6, 5.69).