Greenville wins 12-8 with dominant offensive performance

The Greenville Drive (12-24, 38-64) defeated the Hickory Crawdads (15-23, 53-51) 12-8 in a heated offensive battle.

The Crawdads came out hot taking a 3-0 lead after the first inning on solo home runs by Jayce Easley, Thomas Saggese, and an RBI single by Alejandro Osuna.

However, Greenville fought back with four runs in the second to take the lead away from Hickory. A based loaded walk to Max Ferguson plated Drive Designated Hitter Niko Kavadas. A Nick Yorke single brought two runners home with new addition Marcelo Mayer finishing off the second inning with an RBI single.

The Drive furthered their lead on a throwing error from Hickory third baseman Keybar Rodriguez allowing Yorke to score in the bottom of the fourth.

Then Matthew Lugo blasted a three run homer at the bottom of the sixth to extend the Drive’s lead to 8-3.

The Crawdads answered at the top of the seventh when Randy Florentino reached first on fielder’s choice allowing Chris Seise to add a run for the Crawdads.

The away club did not stop there when a base hit by Christian Inoa drove in Trevor Hauver in the eighth, and a Florentino triple brought in two more runs putting Hickory behind by one run. Then an Evan Carter RBI leveled the game at eight in the top of the eighth inning.

The Drive matched the Crawdads eighth inning, also putting up four runs. Nick Yorke came to bat and hit one to the parking lot with Max Ferguson on base to put Greenville on top 10-8, and a two RBI single by Gilberto Jimenez added two more Drive runs making it 12-8

Cody Scroggins held Hickory to no runs to finish the game and give the Drive another victory.