Rome Thumps Greenville 10-3 to Take Finale

ROME, GA - The Rome Braves used their largest offensive output of the season to crush the Greenville Drive 10-3 on Friday at State Mutual Stadium. Rome scored seven runs within the first four innings, and then romped the rest of the way to dispatch their Southern division rival.
The Braves got the scoring started early against Drive starter RHP Yasel Santana on a sacrifice fly from Andrew Moritz in the 1st inning which brought in leadoff man justin Dean. They followed with an RBI single from Jose Bermudez in the 2nd inning. After Greenville rallied to tie the game up on starter RHP Jose Olague, Rome buried the Drive in a four run attack in the 3rd, highlighted by a two run single from Logan Brown and a two run double from Griffin Benson.
Rome kept the offense rolling with long, grinding at-bats against the Drive pitchers, wearing down the visiting staff. Braves hitters took eight walks in the game and twice Rome brought in runs on bases-loaded walks, once in the 6th inning and again in the 7th. Rome scored at least one run in 6 separate innings on Friday night. Greenville was forced to use five different pitchers across eight innings including turning to their shortstop Korby Batesole to pitch the 8th.

Olague got the win for the Braves, pitching 5 innings and allowing two runs on seven hits. He struck out one and walked one. Relievers RHP Jose Montilla and Kurt Hoekstra each went two innings in their appearances and neither surrendered an earned run. Hoekstra struck out four batters.
Dean had an outstanding game, going 2-3 with a triple, two walks, a stolen base and four runs scored. Brown was 2-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Moritz finished the night 1-3 with two RBI on sacrifice flies.
Friday's tilt brought Rome a handful of milestones. The victory gives Rome consecutive series wins for the first time this year. The 10 runs scored is a season-high figure. At three hours and twenty minutes in length it was easily the longest game Rome has played this season.
The Braves now hit the road for a four game series in Columbia, South Carolina versus the Fireflies beginning Saturday evening at 6:05 pm. The Game 1 starter for Rome is RHP Trey Riley (1-4, 5.02). The two teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon starting at 12:05 pm and then conclude the series on Monday night. Rome returns home on Tuesday.