The Greenville Drive piggybacked on dominant pitching to win 2-0 and set the tone strongly for this six-game series against the Asheville Tourists. The Drive improves to 29-38, while the Tourists drops to 18-51.
After tossing a seven-inning, scoreless performance last week, the longest outing by a Drive pitcher all season, Devin Futrell returned to the mound in game one for another lights-out showing.
Futrell held the Tourists scoreless through six innings, sending batters down in order in four frames he pitched.
Tyler Davis relieved Futrell and saw seven batters before handing it over to Steven Brooks in the eighth. Davis sat down three batters straight in the seventh before heading back to the dugout.
Brooks secured the shutout win for the Drive, earning his fifth save of the season by throwing 1.1 innings with one hit and one punchout.
Greenville's pitching totaled 16 strikeouts against the Asheville lineup, allowing four hits and issuing two walks. Futrell earned the well-deserved win on the night with Luis Rodriguez taking the loss for the Tourists, faulting for the Drive’s winning runs.
As for the offense, Justin Gonzales collected his 33rd RBI of the season on a line-drive single, bringing in Ronny Hernandez for the first run of the game in the third. Luke Heyman extended the Drive’s lead to two runs on a long ball to lead off the following inning, marking the end of all scoring.
The Greenville offense did just enough, finishing with seven hits.
Asheville struggled at the plate tonight with just four hits to show for it, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and leaving six runners stranded.
The Greenville Drive return tomorrow for game two against the Asheville Tourists for Game Show Night, with first pitch set for 6:45 PM at Fluor Field.