CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Columbia Fireflies scored seven runs in the first, but it wasn’t enough as they lost 8-7 to the Charleston RiverDogs in their series finale at The Joe Sunday Night.
Columbia’s offense jumped out to a rocket start in the first frame. The Fireflies sent 12 batters to the dish and scored a season-best seven runs in the inning. Columbia tallied six hits—Yandel Ricardo had two of them—and drew a pair of walks to keep the inning rolling. Ricardo, Sean Gamble, Hyungchan Um and Angel Ramirez all had RBI knocks during the frame.
After that, Charleston did start to chip away Columbia’s advantage. Brady Marget smacked a two RBI single to score Alberth Palma and Cooper Flemming in the first inning to cut Columbia’s lead to 7-2. In the third, Brendan Summerhill lined a lead-off single through and stole second. Later, Cooper Flemming got a base knock of his own to score Summerhill to make it 7-3.
Then in the fourth, Charleston added five more runs. Jose Monzone started the frame with a double before scoring off a JD Gonzalez sacrifice fly. After a couple of walks, Brady Marget had an infield single to score Summerhill and then Tom Poole drilled a two RBI single to plate Cooper Flemming and Marget to upend Columbia and take an 8-7 lead.
Michael Lombardi worked 3.1 innings and struck out three before handing the ball to the bullpen. His three strikeouts gave him 99 on the season, which is the seventh-most in a single season for a Fireflies pitcher. Lombardi was tagged for six runs before he gave the ball to Brandon Herbold (L, 2-3) who surrendered a pair of runs while only getting a pair of outs.
After that, Shane Van Dam cruised through the finish of the game. The righty went four scoreless innings and he struck out four RiverDogs before the finish.
Meanwhile, Aidan Haugh was taken off the hook after surrendering all seven runs for Charleston while only recording a single out. After that, Trendon Parish (W, 3-1) worked a career-best 3.2 innings to start the bullpen’s roll. Brayden Jones and Bryce Shaffer (S, 5) both worked a scoreless inning around Yereny Teus who went three hitless innings to keep Columbia at bay. All-in-all, the bullpen went 8.1 scoreless innings in the come-from-behind win for the RiverDogs.
The Fireflies kick-off a series with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers Tuesday at Segra Park at 7:05 pm. Both teams have yet to name their starters for the series.
Columbia returns home July 21-26 to play the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at Segra Park. The club will host their first-ever True Crime Mystery Night Thursday, July 23, giveaway an ugly Christmas Sweater Jersey to the first 1,000 in attendance July 24 and host Dino Night presented by SC Department of Environmental Services July 25. Buy your tickets now at FirefliesTickets.com.