Drive Fall In Championship Series Opener

Lakewood, NJ – The Drive’s magic to come from behind in the playoffs was offset Monday at FirstEnergy Park. The Lakewood BlueClaws, representing the Northern Division, used six different pitchers to neutralize Greenville’s offense for a 6-3 victory in Game 1 of the South Atlantic League Championship Series.

While the Drive and BlueClaws each tallied nine hits in Game 1 of the South Atlantic League Championship Series, it was Greenville’s inability to collect the key hit that inevitably led to their defeat. The Drive left 10 runners on base, while finishing 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

As Lakewood’s first batter of the game, Anthony Gose quickly put his team up by a run with a solo homer off Brock Huntzinger (0-1) in the bottom of the first inning. However, it didn’t take long for Greenville to answer, tying the game in the bottom of the second.

The hero of the only playoff game at Fluor Field thus far, Mitch Dening, led off with a single and stole second. But with two outs it appeared as if the Australian native would be stranded there, until Casey Kelly laced a double into the leftfield corner.

An inning later, the Drive took their only lead when Dening lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Pete Hissey. Greenville had the chance to blow the game wide open as they had the bases loaded with only one out, but were unable to plate another run off Lakewood’s Matthew Way.

But as quickly as the Drive answered when they trailed in the second inning, the BlueClaws did the same in the home half of the fourth. Harold Garcia’s two-out ground rule double tied the game, and Travis d’Arnaud’s single regained the lead.

Lakewood extended their lead to two runs in Huntzinger’s final inning of the outing as Brian Gump recorded a two-out, RBI-single to score d’Arnaud.

The Drive were poised to tie the game in the top of the seventh, as the first three batters all reached base with Will Middlebrooks knocking in Zach Gentile on an RBI-double. But with runners on second and third with no outs, reliever Clay Condrey induced back-to-back groundouts and then struckout Shannon Wilkerson to end the threat.

In the bottom of the eighth, the BlueClaws would plate a pair of insurance runs off Greenville’s most reliable reliever, Mitch Herold. The southpaw, who allowed only one home run during the entire regular season, surrendered a leadoff blast to Garcia. A walk to d’Arnaud and a double by Jim Murphy accounted for the final run of the game.

The Drive got a leadoff single from Gentile in the top of the ninth, but Santo Hernandez retired the next three batters to seal the victory and record his second save of the playoffs.

Game 2 of the South Atlantic League Championship Series will be Tuesday at FirstEnergy Park, with first pitch at 7:05 PM. A pair of right-handers, Caleb Clay of the Drive and Jesus Sanchez of the BlueClaws, will toe the rubber for the first time of the playoffs.