Greenville Smokes Hickory, 17-5 

Hickory, N.C. – The Drive blasted seven home runs, including two by Dom D’Alessandro, and banged out 19 hits, a season high, enroute to a dominating 17-5 victory over Hickory Thursday night at J.P. Franz Stadium.

The 17 runs scored was also a new season standard.

Greenville combined for 10 extra-base hits, three doubles and seven homers. Eight of the 10 Drive batters collect hits. Seven tallied multi-hit efforts.

D’Alessandro led the way with four RBI on his two homers. Davis collected three RBI behind a 4-for-6 night with three singles and two runs.

Cam Cannon and Tyler Dearden each registered three hits. Cannon doubled, singled and homered with three RBI and three runs. Dearden smacked a homer and two singles and drove in three runs and scored one.

Four Drive players compiled two hits: D’Alessandro, Stephen Scott, Elih Marrero and Jake Mackenzie. Scott homered in his Drive debut. He subbed into the game for Tyler Esplin in the third inning. Marrero slapped two doubles while MacKenzie had two singles.

Brandon Howlett stroked one hit, a homer, and drove in two RBI.

Chris Murphy started and earned the win for the Drive. The lefty tossed 5.0 innings and surrendered three runs on six hits, one homer and one walk with seven strikeouts. Jake Wallace worked 2.0 shutout innings and fanned two.

Cody Bradford was charged with the loss after relenting five runs over 4.2 innings.

The Crawdads quickly got on the board to take a 1-0 in the first inning on an RBI triple by Justin Foscue.

Their lead, however, didn’t last long as Greenville tied it in the top of the second. After two outs, D’Alessandro stepped into the box and mashed a 1-1 pitch for a solo homer, his fifth with the Drive, to tie the game at 1-1.

Hickory pinched the lead back with a solo homer of their own by Jonathan Ornelas in the bottom half of the second frame.

But the Drive stayed hot at the dish and sped in front. Jake MacKenzie walked to led off the frame. That brought up Brannen who reached on a fielder’s choice, putting runners at first and second. After an out, Dearden singled to load the bases. Two batters later and with two outs, Davis stung a two-run single to give the away team a 3-2 lead.

Greenville added four in the fifth to take a commanding 7-2 advantage. Brannen got things going with a leadoff walk. The next batter, Cannon, grounded an RBI double to plate Brannen. After an out, Howlett blasted a two-run homer, his 12th of the year. Davis followed that with a solo shot of his own for back-to-back jacks.

The Crawdads got a run back in the home half of the fifth on a Foscue RBI single. The away team led, 7-3,

The Drive’s home run barrage continued in the sixth frame with a two out blast from Cannon, his seventh of the year, giving Greenville an 8-3 lead.

In the seventh inning the away team’s lead grew even more, 11-3. Howlett walked to begin the frame and got to third two batters later on a Stephen Scott single, his first in a Drive uniform. After an out, D’Alessandro mashed his second homer of the game, a three-run shot.

Hickory kept chipping away with two runs on a two-run single by Pedro Gonzalez to make the score 11-5.

Greenville blew it open in the ninth inning behind six runs. Cannon ripped an RBI single, Dearden smacked a three-run homer and Scott belted a two-run clout to cap the scoring at 17-5.

Game four is scheduled for 7:00 PM Friday night at J.P Franz Stadium. The Drive are slated to throw Jay Groome while Hickory is set to start Zak Kent.