Greenville 4, Savannah 3

The Sand Gnats (10-9) came up just short tonight as they fell to the Greenville Drive, 4-3, in front of 3,055 at Fluor Field. Jeff Kaplan suffered (1-1) the loss for Savannah.

All of the game’s offense would come in the first two innings but it was Greenville striking first. Mitch Dening hit a two-out double to score Ryan Dent and Oscar Tejeda to give the Drive a, 2-0, cushion in the bottom of the first.

Answering right back in the next inning, the Sand Gnats rallied with two away to score three runs to take the lead. Three consecutive hits by the bottom third of the order plated two runs and set the table for Rafael Fernandez. With a tie game, Fernandez hit a weak grounder to first that first baseman Anthony Rizzo flipped to Greenville starter Casey Kelly. Kelly ended up dropping the ball and Jake Eigsti scored on the play to give Savannah the lead.

It was short-lived as Michael Almanzar hit a solo home run in bottom of the second to tie the game. Later in the inning, Tejeda singled in what turned out to be the deciding run.

Savannah had a chance to tie the game in the fifth when Jefry Marte singled with Wilmer Flores on second base but he was thrown out at the plate trying to score for the final out of the inning.

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