COLUMBIA, S.C. — Roni Cabrera and Hyungchan Um both tallied four RBI in the Fireflies 10-5 win over the Salem RidgeYaks Thursday night at Segra Park. The game marked the first night of the club’s Capital City Bombers Celebration weekend, where the Fireflies will play as the Bombers.
The Fireflies gained the lead in the fourth inning. Jacob Mayers (L, 2-1) hit JC Vanek with a pitch and then walked Yandel Ricardo to set the table. With two outs, Roni Cabrera mashed his sixth homer of the season to push Columbia back in front 5-3.
The next inning, Sean Gamble drew a lead-off free pass, then Josh Hammond singled and Yandel Ricardo walked to set the table for Hyungchan Um. Columbia’s catcher scorched a single off the glove of shortstop Avinson Pinto and into left field on a 3-2 pitch with two outs where the runners started to clear the bases and give Columbia an 8-4 advantage. After that, Cabrera singled to plate Um to make it 9-4 heading to the sixth.
The Fireflies scored their final run in the seventh. Ricardo drew a walk, stole second and Um hit a base knock to score him to give Columbia a 10-4 lead. Um closed out the night 2-4 with four RBI and Roni Cabrera also drove in four RBI in a 2-4 effort.
Jose Gutierrez (W, 6-3) worked five innings and allowed only a pair of earned runs in the start. The righty now has five wins since June 1. After that, Randy Ramnarace ripped off a pair of scoreless innings and Yeri Perez finished out the night with two, one-run innings.
Columbia drove ahead in the bottom of the first inning. Henry Ramos hit a double off the left field wall to start the frame. Next, Sean Gamble bunted the tying run to third before Josh Hammond bounced out to short to plate Ramos and tie the game 1-1. Later, JC Vanek mashed an opposite field homer to left field to give Columbia a 2-1 advantage. The round-tripper was Vanek’s team-leading eighth homer of the campaign.
Salem landed a counter-strike in the top of the third. Adonys Guzman got things started with a one-out walk. Next Louis Andujar shot a single to right field. Then with two outs, D’eangelo Ortiz reached on a Josh Hammond throwing error and both Guzman and Andujar came around to score and reverse the script to give Salem the 3-2 advantage.
Salem cracked the score column first in the top of the first for a third-straight night. Skylar King pulled a single down the right field line and stole second to set the table. Later, with two outs, Adonys Guzman lined a base knock to right-center to score King and give the RidgeYaks a 1-0 advantage.
The Fireflies continue their series with the Salem RidgeYaks tomorrow night at Segra Park at 7:05 pm. RHP Michael Lombardi (2-3, 2.39 ERA) takes the bump for Columbia and Salem counters with RHP Christian Foutch (0-5, 6.18 ERA).
The first 1,000 fans in attendance tomorrow will receive a bobbleplane giveaway courtesy of Cassell Brothers Home Services as we ramp up Capital City Bombers Weekend at Segra Park! Gates open at 6 pm—fans will want to get here early to claim their collectible. Tickets are available at FirefliesTickets.com.