Renegades Blast Greenville, 15-2 – OurSports Central

April 30, 2023 – South Atlantic League (SAL) – Hudson Valley Renegades News Release

Greenville, S.C. – Ben Cowles and Alexander Vargas each hit two home runs as the Hudson Valley Renegades blasted seven homers in a 15-2 victory over the Greenville Drive on Sunday afternoon at Fluor Field. The Renegades finish their 12-game road trip with a 9-3 record.

Drew Thorpe was fantastic on the mound for Hudson Valley, turning in 6.2 innings of one-run ball, allowing six hits while walking two and striking out four. Thorpe (1-0) became the first Renegades pitcher to record an out in the seventh inning this season, and picked up his first career win.

The Renegades took the lead in the top of the first inning, scratching out a run on an RBI single from Antonio Gomez to take an early 1-0 lead. It was the fourth time in the last five games that Hudson Valley scored a run in the top of the first.

The game would stay close until the Renegades pulled away in the middle innings. Ben Cowles led off the top of the fifth with a home run, and two batters later, Alexander Vargas clubbed a solo home run as well. They tacked on two more on a Grant Richardson RBI double and a Rafael Flores RBI single to grow the lead to 5-0.

Cowles led off the sixth as well with a solo home run, the first of back-to-back home runs hit by him and Aldenis Sanchez to start the frame. This was the first multi-home run game in Cowles’ career. Two batters later, Aaron Palensky rocketed a solo home run to right field for the third long ball of the inning. Gomez and Flores contributed back-to-back RBI doubles to extend the advantage to 10-0.

Luis Santos walloped a three-run pinch-hit home run to right-center in the top of the seventh to grow the lead to 13-0, and after the ‘Gades scored an unearned run in the eighth, Vargas hit the seventh Hudson Valley homer in the ninth to close out the scoring.

Vargas and Cowles became the second pair of Renegades teammates to go deep twice in the same game this season, joining Spencer Jones and Spencer Henson on April 11 at Aberdeen. The seven home runs hit by Hudson Valley are the most in a game by the team since hitting a franchise record 10 on Sept. 5, 2021 at Greensboro.

Palensky finished 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, an RBI, two walks and two runs scored. He has homered in four straight games, becoming just the third Renegade since 2005 to do so, joining Jake Sanford (July 16-21, 2021) and Chad Bell (July 15-20, 2021).

Danny Watson closed out the game by…