Pelicans Fall in Finale to Fireflies 6-4

By Sam Weiderhaft

A late rally for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans fell short in a 6-4 loss to the Columbia Fireflies on Sunday night in the series finale. The loss clinched the series win for the Fireflies, who stand at 61-50 and 26-20 in the second half. The Pelicans dropped to 50-59 and 21-22 in the second half of the season.

Two home runs gave the Pelicans late life as Jose Escobar (2-3, HR, RBI, BB) and Drew Bowser (1-4, HR, RBI) went deep in the ninth. Owen Ayers (1-4, RBI) collected his first RBI in professional baseball with an RBI single in the sixth.

Sunday’s loss went to Alfredo Romero (0-7) with three runs, one earned in his three innings out of the bullpen. Starter JP Wheat allowed one earned run across his three innings with a career-high four strikeouts. The Pelicans also committed four errors in the field.

Austin Charles (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI) led the Fireflies with two RBI on a single and a double. Erick Torres (2-5) and Derlin Figueroa (2-3, BB) each posted multi-hit games from the top two spots in the lineup.

Seven pitchers came in for the Fireflies, with Josh Hansell (3-2) earning the win with one earned run across his two innings in relief. Ismael Michel came in for the final out to pick up his second save of the year.

For the fifth time this series, Columbia scored in the first inning. Charles lined a single to center with a runner on third to give the Fireflies an early 1-0 lead.

The Pelicans responded in the bottom of the second. Carter Trice hit a sacrifice fly to left-center following Escobar’s triple to bring him home and tie the game.

The score was tied until the Fireflies packed three runs in the top of the sixth. With runners on first and second, Carter Frederick hit an infield single to shortstop Christian Olivo, who threw wide to first base allowing a run to score. Callan Moss later hit an RBI single and Dionmy Salon finished off the inning with an RBI groundout to make the score 4-1 Columbia.

Myrtle Beach got one back on an RBI single by Ayers with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Two more runs came in for Columbia in the top of the seventh. With a runner on, Charles hit a ball off the wall in left field for an RBI double. After the throw came home and the run scored, Ayers committed a throwing error to second that allowed Charles to score on the play.

The Pelicans rallied back in the bottom of the ninth as Escobar and Bowser each hit solo homers. With two outs and a runner on base, Eriandys Ramon hit a fly ball that was caught on the warning track in right field to end the game with the final score of 6-4.

The Pelicans hit the road for a six game series with the Charleston RiverDogs, with game one set for Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.