Drive Fall to Charleston to End Road Trip

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Greenville Drive (5-8) fell to the Charleston Riverdogs (7-7), 7-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark to end its seven-game road trip. With the win, the Riverdogs took the opening series of the Battle of the Palmetto State Rivalry Series, presented by Spinx.
Charleston got a pair of runs in the second and two more in the fourth to build an early lead. A pair of solo home runs by Nelson Gomez and Mickey Gasper in the second made it 2-0. A sac fly by Junior Soto and an RBI single by Eduardo Torrealba gave the Riverdogs a 4-0 after four innings.
Greenville's lone run came in the fifth. Tuesday's hero Grant Williams led off the inning with a single and three batters later Tyler Esplin doubled to center to score Williams and make it 4-1.

Charleston added two runs in the fifth and tacked on one more in the eighth. A bases-loaded single by Max Burt brought across two to push the advantage to 6-1. Josh Stowers drove in the final run of the game with an RBI single to left in the eighth.
Jio Orozco (1-1) earned his first win of the season for Charleston, allowing just one run on five hits in 6.0 innings pitched with four walks against three strikeouts. Yasel Santana (0-1) allowed six runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts in 4.0 innings pitched in his third start of the season for the Drive. Carlos Espinal earned his first save of the year, working 3.0 scoreless innings in relief with seven strikeouts.
Five different Drive hitters each recorded one hit apiece in the loss. Alex Demchak and Yoan Aybar each recorded 1.0 inning of scoreless relief work out of the pen.
Greenville returns home on Thursday, hosting Rome in game one of a three-game series, with first pitch set for 7:05 PM. RHP Chris Machamer (0-0, 4.00 ERA) faces off with Rome's Trey Riley (0-2, 7.27 ERA) at Fluor Field.