COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a 52-minute rain delay entering the ninth inning, things got interesting at L.P. Frans Stadium. The Crawdads tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, before Columbia scored three in the 10th to set down Hickory 6-4 Thursday night.
Dash Albus (BS, 2;W, 2-1) allowed the tying run to score in the ninth, but then buckled down and allowed just the placed runner to score in extras to earn his 11th win with the Fireflies. He passes 2017 Fireflies pitcher, Jordan Humphreys for the most wins in Fireflies franchise history.
Columbia rallied with two outs in the top of the 10th inning. JC Vanek scored on an Ivan Sosa strikeout where Aneudis Mejia (L, 1-5) threw a wild pitch and then catcher Sebastian Baquera had a throwing error to first that put Sosa into scoring position. After Josh Hammond drew a five-pitch walk, Stone Russell clobbered his second double in three innings to left to score Sosa and Hammond to give Columbia a 6-3 advantage. Russell finished the night 2-4 with two doubles and three RBI. He now leads the Fireflies with 30 RBI on the campaign.
The Fireflies tied the game in the top of the fourth frame. Hyungchan Um flew his sixth homer of the season beyond the right field fence to cut Hickory’s lead to 2-1. After that, Roni Cabrera lined a two out double over the head of Deward Tovar and came around after JC Vanek reached on a fielding error from shortstop Curley Martha to tie the game 2-2.
Columbia harnessed two out magic again in the eighth inning. Josh Hammond hit a two out single to set the table for Stone Russell. Columbia’s second baseman nailed a double to the right-center gap to score Hammond from first and give the Fireflies a 3-2 lead.
The Crawdads jumped on the board first in the second frame. Ryan McDonagh walked a pair of batters. Then Deward Tovar lined a single to right to score Luis Marquez to break the scoreless tie. After that, Curley Martha lifted a sacrifice fly to shallow right to score Daniel Flames to make it 2-0 Hickory before the end of the frame.
McDonagh earned the no-decision in his debut where he was stellar for four of the five innings he pitched. The righty struck out four over five innings and allowed only one hit. He left the game after retiring the final 11 batters he faced.
Next, Andy Basora worked 1.2 scoreless innings before passing the ball to Hunter Alberini (W, 3-0) in a two out bases loaded situation. Alberini got Sebastian Baquera to roll over a ball for the final out of the inning and worked a scoreless eighth inning befoer the tarp came on the field.
Following the eighth inning, the tarp came on the field for a 52-minute weather delay at L.P. Frans Stadium. After that, Aneudis Mejia worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth inning for the Crawdads before Dash Albus came on for the Fireflies.
Columbia kicks-off the second-half slate with a 7 pm match-up with the Hickory Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium tomorrow. RHP Coleman Picard (debut) takes the bump for Columbia and Hickory counters with LHP Aidan Deakins (5-0, 1.82 ERA).
The Fireflies return home for 12 games in 13 days from June 30-July 12. The team will celebrate America’s 250th birthday with the biggest fireworks show of the year, Saturday, July 4 and will continue with fireworks and a patriotic theme all weekend thanks to SC 250. The next weekend, the club is throwing it back to the 90s for the return of the Capital City Bombers thanks to Cassell Brothers Home Services. Join the team for a bobble plane giveaway Friday, July 10 and a drone show Saturday, July 11. Buy your tickets now at FirefliesTickets.com.