Drive Clinch Series with 6-4 Win Over Sand Gnats

Turocy continues hot hitting, going 3-for-4 in victory

July 7, 2013

Thanks to a five-run fourth inning and some terrific relief pitching, the Greenville Drive (10-8, 32-55) finished off a 3-1 series victory with a 6-4 win over the visiting Savannah Sand Gnats (7-10, 50-36) on Sunday at Fluor Field.

Trailing 4-1, the big fifth inning began with back-to-back doubles by Drew Turocy and David Chester. Two batters later, Aneury Tavarez lined a single to center for another run, and a wild pitch by Savannah starter Jake Kuebler (2-5) tied the game later in the inning. After the wild pitch, Keaton Briscoe smoked a double to the wall in right-center to give the Drive the lead. Mookie Betts then reached on an error which allowed Briscoe to score the fifth and final run of the inning.

Jack McGeary (1-0) shined in his first outing with the Drive, throwing three shutout frames of relief and striking out two without allowing a hit. Yunior Ortega followed with a pair of scoreless innings and collected his first save of the season.

Savannah got off to a quick start with three extra-base hits to score three runs in the top of the first against Drive starter Francellis Montas, including a two-run triple to the left-field corner by Maikis De la Cruz.

The Sand Gnats threatened Ortega in the ninth with runners on first and second, but Betts picked up a hot shot at second base off the bat of Brandon Nimmo to start a 4-6-3 double play. The next batter, Kyle Johnson, slugged a fly ball to deep center field, but Tavarez made an incredible leaping catch at the wall to end the game.

Turocy had three hits and Tavarez had two hits, and they picked up their 20th and 25th multi-hit games of the season, respectively.

The Drive will have an off-day on Monday before going on the road and beginning a three-game series with the Charleston RiverDogs. Drive LHP Cody Kukuk (4-7, 3.90) will take on RiverDogs RHP Luis Niebla (3-4, 6.19) in the opener on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Greenville will return home on July 17 for a seven-game homestand at Fluor Field.