Early lead Dented

Thing started out well enough for the Charleston RiverDogs on Tuesday night, but the Greenville Drive wouldn't leave well enough alone.

After taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning, Charleston managed three hits the rest of the way while Greenville went on to pound the RiverDogs 13-4 in a South Atlantic League game played in front of a Riley Park crowd of 5,476.

"Strickland does a good job," RiverDogs' manager Torre Tyson said of Greenville starting pitcher Hunter Strickland. "He throws strikes, but he wasn't doing that in the first inning and we took advantage of it with a couple key hits. We had nothing from there."

It marked the most hits (16) and runs the RiverDogs have allowed in a game this season.

Charleston's 3-0 lead disappeared thanks to the bat of Greenville's Ryan Dent.

Dent hit a solo homer in the third and followed up with a three-run double in the fourth to put the Drive ahead 4-3.

Greenville (2-3) went ahead 5-3 with a run in the fifth on Jered Stanley's sacrifice fly and blew the game open with seven runs in the eighth.

Melky Mesa had a solo homer in the ninth for the RiverDogs.

The RiverDogs (3-3) got off to a good start with three runs in the first highlighted by Abraham Almonte's run-scoring single and Garrison Lassiter's two-run single.

Ballpark fun

Tuesday night was — among other things — "Nancy Night" at Riley Park. All the famous "Nancys" were recognized on the video board, and the RiverDogs picked Nancy Robinson, a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina who lives on James Island, to represent all Nancy's in the Tri-County area. Robinson was selected out of the phone book. In addition, "The Joe" was re-named "The Nancy" for the night.

Coming up

The RiverDogs and The Drive play the second game of the four-game series at 12:05 p.m. today at Riley Park. Andrew Brackman (1-6, 4.98 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the RiverDogs, while Nick Hagadone (0-1, 3.86 ERA) is the expected starter for Greenville.

Today's game is Big Splash Day, and fans are encouraged to bring squirt guns and water balloons. The Charleston Fire Department will bring a water cannon.