Drive Blank Hot Rods 5-0 in Doubleheader Opener

July 20, 2024 – South Atlantic League (SAL)
Greenville Drive Press Release

Jhostynxon Garcia and Mikey Romero hit solo homers, Allan Castro added a triple and Luis Ravelo delivered two RBIs to lead the Greenville Drive (13-9, 39-49) to a 5-0 victory over the Bowling Green Hot Rods (13-8, 49-38) in the first frame of Saturday’s twinbill at Fluor Field.

Gabriel Jackson, Cooper Adams and Zach Fogell combined to hold the Hot Rods’ vaunted offense to just three hits on the afternoon, while the trio combined for five. The win marked the Drive’s second straight shutout when they defeated Rome 2-0 on Sunday, July 14. It was also their third shutout in the last six games.

After rain washed out the series opener Friday night at Fluor Field, Jackson held his own on the mound in his second start of the season, pitching three innings, allowing a single hit in the second and walking a single with a strikeout among the 11 batters he faced.

Greenville struck first in the second, sparked by an eight-pitch at-bat from Garcia that resulted in a hard single to center field. Allan Castro followed with his third triple of the season, hitting a hard fly ball to right field that eluded a diving Ryan Spikes to give the Drive a 1-0 lead. Luis Ravelo doubled the lead to 2-0 with a sacrifice fly.

Jackson finished his final inning with two ground balls and a flyout, shutting down Bowling Green’s powerful offense, which had begun the week as the second-best offense in the South Atlantic League.

Romero hit his third home run of the season, driving a pitch deep into the Hot Rods’ bullpen to extend the Drive’s lead to 3-0. Garcia hit his homer in the fourth inning off Bowling Green reliever Adam Boucher to extend the Drive’s lead to 4-0.

Castro singled and stole second later in the inning, before Luis Ravelo singled with two runs remaining, bringing him in and taking the lead with another run.

Adams took over in the fourth, walked Tre’ Morgan to open the frame, but promptly intercepted him at first before securing back-to-back outs. Adams struck out two in the fifth and took three straight groundouts in the sixth before turning the ball over to Zach Fogell in the seventh.

Fogell gave up a lead-off double to open the inning, but retired the next three batters to secure the win.

The Drive returns to action at 7 p.m. for game two of that day’s doubleheader with Bowling Green. The Drive holds a 1-0 series lead.

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