Drive bats come alive as pitching trio blanks ‘Hoppers, 8-0

Four Drive batters recorded multi-hit games, and the pitching trio of Juan Daniel Encarnacion, Cade Feeney, and Jonathan Brand gave up only five hits combined en route to a 8-0 Greenville Drive (5-11) victory over the Greensboro Grasshoppers (9-6) Tuesday night at Fluor Field.

The win marked the Drive’s first series-opening win since the first game of the season back on April 5th — a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the ‘Hoppers in Greensboro. While the bats put up a season-high tying eight runs on a season-high tying 12 hits, it was Drive pitching that found a missing step to help set the tone.

Starter Juan Daniel Encarnacion tossed five solid innings for the Drive, earning his first win of the season as he allowed just three hits while picking up six strikeouts across the 19 batters he faced. He needed just 61 pitches to get through his outing. His efforts also marked only the second time this season that a Drive starter made it through the fifth inning — the only other being Connelly Early who did so at Fluor Field on April 13th against the Bowling Green Hot Rods.

With Encarnacion dealing, the Drive would strike first in the third on an Ahbram Liendo long fly ball to the warning track in center field that was mishandled by the ‘Hoppers Sammy Siani allowing Cutter Coffey to score from first base. Coffey and Liendo would each record two hits at the plate on the night.

Juan Chacon added an RBI-double in the sixth to score Allan Castro which Caden Rose followed up with a soft single to left to score Ronald Rosario and Chacon to make it 4-0 Greenville.

Feeney picked up for Encarnacion in the sixth, seventh and part of the eighth, spinning an ultimate 2.1 innings allowing just one hit with two strikeouts. After a rough first four outings to start the year for Feeney, his last two efforts have seemed to right the ship as he’s picked up four strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work, lowering his ERA from 13.50 to 6.00.

Castro added the fifth run in the seventh on an RBI-single to score Coffey while Tyler Miller added another RBI-single in the eighth. Miguel Ugueto, who also registered two hits on the night, scored on wild pitch during Coffey’s at-bat before Liendo dropped a pop-up single two at bats later to score Miller and round out the Drive lead at 8-0.

Jonathan Brand continued his dominating ways in his outing, picking up three strikeouts in his 1.2 innings of work. He’d work around a single and a walk in the ninth to preserve the Drive’s first shutout victory of the season.

The Drive return to action tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. for the second game of the six-game series with Greensboro. The Drive lead the series, 1-0.