Drive Top RiverDogs 6-4 to Even Series
Charleston, SC - With solid pitching and the offense coming in bunches, the Greenville Drive defeated the Charleston RiverDogs 6-4 on Saturday night to even the four-game series at one.
In his first start in 11 days, Drive (29-26, 66-58) southpaw Enmanuel De Jesus (2-1) limited the RiverDogs (25-30, 67-57) to one earned run over five innings to get the victory.
On the benefit of a Charleston error in the top of the second, the Drive took a 2-0 lead. Charleston cut that lead in half in the third when Gosuke Katoh doubled and came home on a groundout by Ricardo Ferreira.
The teams traded two-run frames in the fifth. J.T. Watkins drew a one-out walk for Greenville and came all the way in on Nick Lovullo's double. Later in the inning, Luis Alexander Basabe lifted a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-1. Following a Drive error in the bottom half, Ferreira's RBI single and Hoy Jun Park's RBI triple again trimmed Greenville's lead to one.
Two more runs in the sixth allowed the Drive to pull away. Kyri Washington and Austin Rei each singled with one out, and Mitchell Gunsolus laced a single of his own to score Washington. When the ball was misplayed in the outfield, Rei came home for the sixth run and Gunsolus ended up on third.
The RiverDogs scored a run in the eighth, but that was the only run allowed against Drive relievers Stephen Nogosek, Gerson Bautista and Victor Diaz in four innings of work. Diaz earned his 10th save of the year with a perfect ninth.
Washington collected two hits for the Drive in the game.
Sunday's contest in Charleston begins at 5:05 PM. Drive left-hander Dedgar Jimenez (6-5, 4.22) will take the mound against RiverDogs right-hander Adonis Rosa (0-4, 4.85).