Greenville Drive pitcher Logan Boyd shut down the Charleston RiverDogs offense in a 1-0 Drive win Thursday night at Joe Riley Park. Boyd (W, 6-1) pitched six strong innings allowing just three hits while striking out four.
The only run in the game came in the top of the first off RiverDog starter Nick Nelson (L, 0-4, 5.70 ERA). Santiago Espinal ripped a double down the right field line. Tyler Hill brought Espinal home with a single up the middle to make it 1-0 Greenville. “(Nelson) was really, really good. Hopefully we can get him on a roll and he can really take off. We just couldn’t come up with the big hit there late. We had a couple of chances and it didn’t go our way,” RiverDogs manager Patrick Osborn said.
Nelson was the hard luck loser in the pitcher’s duel but had his strongest start of the season. He ended up going six innings, striking out seven batters and allowing five hits.
David Sosebee pitched three innings of scoreless relief aided by an eighth inning 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Espinal that started with runners on first and third with one out.
Matthew Gost relieved Boyd in the seventh and held the RiverDogs scoreless for an inning and a third. In the bottom of the eighth, Carlos Vidal led off with a bunt single laid perfectly down the third base line. After getting Florial to ground out, Diego Castillo hit a ball shortstop Carlos Tovar could not handle putting runners and first and third. Hoy Park followed with a walk and Greenville summoned Stephen Nogosek out of the bullpen. Nogosek struck out Blake Rutherford and then induced a grounder to second to get the Drive out of trouble in the eighth. “It’s a tough situation as a hitter and you got a runner third with less than two outs. All of us have been in that situation a million times before and it’s difficult. We had the right guys up and we just didn’t come through. I’ll take my chances with Blake with bases loaded and one out anytime, anywhere,” Osborn said.
In the ninth, the RiverDogs threatened again off Nogosek. Isiah Gilliam started things off with a walk. Ben Ruta laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Gilliam to second. Gilliam would be stranded there however with Oswaldo Cabrera striking out and then Vidal ended the game with a groundout to second base.
The RiverDogs fall to 23-23 on the season while the Drive improve to 29-16. The Dogs and Drive face each other in the second game of the four game set Friday night at Joe Riley park for a 7:05 start.
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