Drive Boil Crawdads for 9-2 Win

Greenville, S.C. – Greenville scored in four-straight innings—second-through-fifth—including a five-run fourth inning, to take game one against Hickory, 9-0, Tuesday afternoon at Fluor Field.

For the afternoon, the Drive compiled 11 hits and two extra-base hits, two doubles. Three Greenville hitters registered multi-hit efforts: Tyler Esplin, Cam Cannon and Cole Brannen. Esplin led the way with three hits, a double, and two RBI. Devlin Granberg also drove in two runs. Christian Koss, Cannon, Nick Sogard and Brannen collected single RBIs.

Jose Espada picked up the win after hurling 0.2 perfect innings with a strikeout. Jay Groome got the start for the Drive and tossed 4.1 shutout innings. He relented three hits and four walks with seven strikeouts, one short of his season- and career-high.

Justin Slaten took the loss after surrendering five runs, four earned, over 3.0 innings.

The Drive took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Devlin Granberg drew a walk to led off the inning. After two outs, Elih Marrero battled for a 10-pitch walk to put runners at first and second. Brannen then lined a two-out RBI single, plating Granberg.

In Greenville’s next half inning at the dish, they added two more runs. Cannon got things started with a single up the middle. The next two hitters, Esplin and Reed, walked to load the bases. That brought up Granberg who flew out to center field for a sac fly. Two batters later, Reed took off for second and stole the bag. The catcher’s throw went into center for an error, allowing Esplin to score.

The home team scored in their third-straight frame with five runs in the fourth. Marrero led off with a ground rule double down the right field line. The next hitter, Brannen, walked. Koss then lined an RBI single to left-center field. Cannon followed that with his own RBI single that bounced between the middle infielders. The Drive’s third-straight hit came off the bat of Esplin, who laced an RBI single to center. After a force out, Granberg drove in his second run of the game on an RBI grounout. Cottam then singled. Sogard followed that with the final RBI single of the frame. Overall, they compiled six hits and five runs.

The run-barrage continued in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Brannen led off with a single. After two outs, Esplin drove in his second run of the game on a groundball down the right field line for an RBI double, pushing the score to 9-0 Greenville.

The Crawdads picked up two runs in the ninth on an RBI single by Kenen Irizarry and throwing error.

Game two against Hickory is scheduled for 7:05 pm Wednesday night at Fluor Field. The Drive are slatted to throw Brian Van Belle while the Crawdads are set to throw Cole Ragans.