Mayer walk-off single delivers 5-4 victory for Drive in the 10th

Marcelo Mayer, kept at bay through the first two games of this series, finally found the spark he needed in the bottom of the 10th with the winning runner, Brainer Bonaci, standing on second. With the inning hanging on a strike, Mayer slapped a sharp grounder between the first and second baseman with just enough juice on it to bring Bonaci home and give the Greenville Drive (16-19) a 5-4 victory over the Bowling Green Hot Rods (18-16).

Mayer delivered the Drive’s first walk-off of the year, and their third extra-innings victory of the season with his sharp groundball, giving the Drive a 2-1 lead in the week’s series. Ultimately, he finished the night 2-for-5 with 2 RBI.

While Mayer played hero for the Drive, a stellar performance from Drive starter Juan Daniel Encarnacion bolstered the team as he spun five innings, allowing just one run on four hits, issuing no walks and ringing up four.

The scoring started early as a two-out RBI double from Willy Vasquez put the Hot Rods on the board first in the first inning. The lead was fleeting however, as the Drive responded with a three-run inning of their own in the bottom of the first.

The Drive ripped four straight singles to lead off the inning, including RBI-singles from Mayer and Blaze Jordan to make it 2-1. Two batters later, an Eddinson Paulino groundout was enough to bring Mayer home, giving the Drive a 3-1 lead as the game flipped to second inning.

After allowing three hits in the first inning, Encarnacion settled in allowing only one hit the rest of way in his five innings work, before being relieved by Casey Cobb in the sixth.

The Hot Rods would break through in the seventh as a one-out single off Cobb drove in two to knot the game. Joe Jones held the Hot Rods off through 2.1 innings as he relieved Cobb with two outs in the seventh, not relinquishing hit and picking up two strikeouts.

As the game flipped to the 10th, back-to-back wild pitches from reliever Joey Stock plated the Hot Rods extra inning runner to give Bowling Green the 4-3 lead.

With Kier Meredith on second as the Drive’s ghost runner in the bottom of the tenth, the Drive’s first two batters went down on consecutive strikeouts, before Bonaci ripped a double down the left field line giving, plating Meredith and tying the game at 4-4.

Mayer would then slap an 0-2 pitch through the hole into right field, scoring Bonaci from second, giving the Drive the walk-off win, 5-4.

The Drive (Boston Red Sox) return to action tomorrow, May 19 at Fluor Field for game four of the six-game series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods (Tampa Bay Rays), with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The Drive currently hold a 2-1 series lead.