Drive down Blue Rocks, 7-5 for first ever win in Wilmington

The Greenville Drive (4-7) no-hit the Wilmington Blue Rocks (7-4) through five innings, Bryan Gonzalez added his fourth homer of the season, and Kristian Campbell and Allan Castro each notched two RBI as the Drive defeated the Blue Rocks, 7-5 on Wednesday.

Starter Juan Daniel Encarnacion and reliever Zach Fogell carried the no-hit bid through five innings, fanning seven in the process. The Drive fed off the momentum at the plate throughout the bid, tacking on all seven runs within the five innings of work Encarnacion and Fogell kept Wilmington at-bay.

The Drive cracked the scoreless tie in the third as Cutter Coffey and Gonzalez executed a double steal of second and home, respectively, putting the Drive up 1-0 early. An at-bat later, Campbell reached on a throwing error allowing Coffey to come to the plate to make it 2-0. Castro would knock his first RBI of the night in the following at-bat with a single to right field to make it 3-0 as Campbell scored.

In the bottom half of the third, the Blue Rocks would cause trouble for the Drive’s Encarnacion, though he’d nab the second and third batter of the inning after issuing a lead-off walk. Encarnacion walked the bases full with the ensuing batters before a balk would bring the first Blue Rock of the night to the plate. Encarnacion exited after 3.2 innings, allowing no hits, one run, and five walks while striking out five.

The fourth inning would completely belong to the Drive however as they’d scratch across three more runs. Gonzalez, Lira and Coffey reached base consecutively to lead of the inning allowing Campbell’s single to right field to plate Gonzalez and Lira and make it 5-1. Campbell would leave the game after reaching first with an apparent injury. He’d be replaced by Eudardo Lopez. Coffey continued his improvement at the plate as of late, going 2-for-5 while accounting for two runs.

Castro added the third and final run in the fourth on a sac-fly allowing Coffey to score and boost the lead to 6-1. Gonzalez would knock his fourth big-fly of the season on a 0-1 breaking ball in the fifth, riding it out into the left field bullpen to make it 7-1.

After Fogell shut down the fifth, the sixth would be a taller task for the newly promoted pitcher. He’d allow two runs after two singles and a walk set up a Jonathan Thomas ground out to score Maxwell Romero. Thomas would later steal second and the fielding error by Coffey on the play allowed Viandel Pena to score to cut the lead to 7-3. Fogell would exit in the seventh in favor of reliever Caleb Bolden. Fogell ended his night with officially 2.1 innings in the books, two hits, two runs, two walks, while fanning four.

Bolden would relinquish two runs of his own in his three innings of work, both on a Pena single in the bottom of the seventh. But he’d recover, picking up a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth and ninth to give the Drive their first ever win against the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

The Greenville Drive return to action tomorrow, April 18 at 6:35 p.m. for game three of the six-game series with Wilmington. The series is currently split, 1-1.