Walk-off win for Drive despite Tebow’s two RBIs
The Greenville Drive took the opening round of the pivotal three-game series with the Columbia Fireflies on Tuesday at Fluor Field. Shortstop Santiago Espinal singled in the bottom of the ninth to give the Drive a 5-4 win over the Fireflies.
The win snapped Columbia’s franchise-record nine-game winning streak and put the Drive up 1½ games ahead of the Fireflies in the South Atlantic League Southern Division with five games to play in the first half of the season.
With the score 4-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, Columbia pitcher Cam Griffin walked leadoff hitter Nick Lovullo. Lorenzo Cedrola followed with a bunt which Griffin threw high to second and Lovullo was called safe despite replays showing he was tagged out.
Fireflies’ manager Jose Leger charged out of the dugout to dispute the call to no avail.
Espinal followed with slow rolling ground ball to get through the right side and score Lovullo for the walk-off’s victory. Espinal finished with three hits.
Hildamaro Requena (4-2) picked up the win for Greenville. Griffin (0-1) took the loss.
Columbia trailed 4-0 going to fifth before rallying to tie the score. Reed Gamache, Tim Tebow and Gene Cone had consecutive RBI hits in the inning.
Tebow had a two-run double to score Ali Sanchez and Jay Jabs. It was Tebow’s 12th double of the season and he has 20 RBIs.
Jabs led Columbia with two hits.
The Fireflies had two on and one out in the top of the ninth, but Tucker Tubbs made a diving stop to rob Cone of a hit and double Tebow off first.
The teams will play again at Fluor Field on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cone cf | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Gimenez ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Paez 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Winningham 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Carpio 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Sanchez c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jabs rf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gamache dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Tebow lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
TOTALS | 33 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
Greenville | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cedrola cf | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Espinal ss | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Madera rf | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Hill lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Tubbs 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Spoon dh | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Lucena c | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Gunsolus 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Lovullo 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
TOTALS | 36 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Columbia | 000 | 040 | 000 | — | 4 |
Greenville | 110 | 200 | 001 | — | 5 |
E — Griffin. LOB — Columbia 6; Greenville 9. 2B — PaezTebow, Espinal, madera, Spoon, Hill, Lucena. 3B — Spoon. SF — Gunsolus.
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Cornish | 7 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Griffin, L 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Greenville | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Diaz | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Smith | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Requena W, 4-2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
WP — Cornish. Umpires — HP: Reed Basner. 1B: John Benken. T — 2:47. A — 6,340.
Griffin pitched to 3 batters in the 9th. Diaz pitched to 6 batters in teh 5th.
This story was originally published June 13, 2017 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Walk-off win for Drive despite Tebow’s two RBIs."