Drive get first win over Spartanburgers

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25-04-2025

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Despite a three-run bottom of the ninth, the Hub City Spartanburgers (10-8) fell to the Greenville Drive (8-9) at Fifth Third Park Thursday, 6-3. The Drive pieced together enough offense to get to the 'Burger bullpen; two RBI groundouts and Dylan Dreiling's third knock of the night couldn't overcome a six-run deficit.
After two days off, Dreiling has made a loud return to the top of manager Chad Comer's batting order. The lefty lined three hits, one against each of the three Drive pitchers. Through 14 games, Dreiling, the Rangers' No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, is hitting .273, and averaging a hit per game. He also swiped his third bag of the season Thursday.
Fellow national champion at Tennessee Cal Stark stepped up for Hub City, smacking three singles for the second time this season. Stark's first three-hit game came on Sunday, April 6, the finale of a three-game set in Aberdeen.
Hub City's Josh Trentadue (L, 1-1) stranded a runner at third in each of the first two innings. The starter could not keep Greenville off the board in the third though. After a one-out walk to Yophery Rodriguez, Nazzan Zanetello scorched a double into the right-center field gap to score Rodriguez from first.
The Spartanburgers made Greenville starter Hayden Mullins work, but didn't have many baserunners to show for it. Dreiling's leadoff single in the first was the only base hit through four innings for Hub City. Mullins retired 12 straight batters after the Dreiling hit, with six strikeouts.
Victor Simeon replaced Trentadue in a 1-0 game to begin the fifth. After three walks and two strikeouts, he exited in favor of Joey Danielson. The new reliever walked home a run before a popup ended the threat for Greenville.
Zach Fogell (W, 1-0) maintained a 2-run lead as he replaced Mullins in the home half of the fifth. After a pair of singles from Gleider Figuereo and Cal Stark, Fogell retired the side with a trio of strikeouts. Hub City picked up scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh from Danielson and Mailon Felix.
Adam Smith (S, 1) replaced Fogell with two outs in the sixth. The first righty arm of the evening for Greenville needed just one pitch to end the sixth before tossing scoreless frames in both the seventh and eighth.
Felix surrendered one run in the eighth on an RBI single from Kolby Johnson. Greenville opened the game up in the top of the ninth. The Drive struck for three runs against Seth Clark. Zanetello completed a three-hit day with an RBI double, and catcher Hudson White tagged his first career triple to drive home a run.
The first three reached in the bottom of the ninth for Hub City against Smith with a Disla walk and singles from Figuereo and Stark. After a pair of RBI groundouts, Hub City was down to its final out. Theo Hardy walked and Dreiling mashed a run-scoring double to make it a three-run game. Anthony Gutierrez stepped to the plate representing the tying run, but a night after his walk-off heroics, he struck out swinging to end the game.
Hub City and Greenville square up at 7:05 p.m. ET for game four Friday night. It's another Fifth Third Fireworks Friday at the ballpark. David Davalillo (0-0, 0.79 ERA) starts for the Spartanburgers against Juan Valera (0-0, 7.30 ERA).
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