Greenville Plates Six in Ninth For 6-5 Walk-Off Victory

Greenville, S.C. – Trailing, 5-0, in the ninth inning, the Drive scored six runs, with Brandon Howlett drawing the go-ahead bases-loaded walk, to secure the 6-5 comeback win and extend the winning-streak to six games Wednesday night at Fluor Field.

The Drive overcame a five-run deficit for the first time this year while winning their first game trailing after the eighth inning.

Greenville scored all six of its runs in the ninth inning. Tyler Esplin got things started with a double off the Green Monster. Brandon Howlett followed with an RBI single up the middle. The next batter, Tyreque Reed, smoked a single up the middle that almost drilled the pitcher to put runners at first and second. Kole Cottam then walked to load the bases. After an infield fly, Luke Bandy chopped a ball to third that he beat out for an RBI infield single. Cole Brannen then drew a bases-loaded walk to make the score 5-3. With Christian Koss up, Cottam scored on a wild pitch to bring it to a 5-4 game. Koss then tied the game with an RBI double to left field. Cam Cannon was hit-by-pitch to load the bases again, and then an out was recorded. That brought up Howlett who pushed the count to 3-2 before drawing the walk for the winning run.

The Drive smacked five of their 10 hits in the ninth. Eight on the nine hitters compiled a hit. Howlett drove in two runs in the deciding ninth inning. Koss and Bandy tallied multi-hit efforts on the night. Cannon registered one hit to extend his hitting-streak to nine.

Zach Bryant got the win in relief. He pitched 1.0 inning with two strikeouts. Brian Van Belle started for Greenville and surrendered five runs over 4.0 innings on seven hits and two homers. He fanned three. Yusniel Padron-Artilles pitched 3.0 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and no walks with two strikeouts.

Triston Polley took the loss after surrendering all six runs in the ninth inning.

The Crawdads got on the board four batters in on a Blaine Crim RBI single to left, taking a 1-0 lead.

Hickory added another run in the following on a Pedro Gonzalez homer. They led, 2-0.

Another home run by the Crawdads in the third, this time off the bat of Jonathan Ornelas, pushed their lead to 3-0.

The away team scored in its fourth-straight inning to extend their lead to 5-0. Jake Guenther roped an RBI double while Frainyer Chavez stroked an RBI single

Greenville then scored six runs in the ninth to complete the comeback.

Game three against Hickory is scheduled for 7:05 pm Thursday night at Fluor Field. The Drive are slated to throw Chris Murphy while the Crawdads are set to throw Cody Bradford.