Bats Stifled in 9-1 Loss at Myrtle Beach

COLUMBIA, SC – The Columbia Fireflies bats were held in check for a second-consecutive evening in an 8-1 loss vs the Pelicans at TicketReturn.com Field at Pelicans Stadium Saturday evening.

The Fireflies (7-13) lone run came in the top of the seventh inning. Enrique Valdez doubled off the center field wall to score Guillermo Quintana and give Columbia a chunk of momentum, cutting the Pelicans lead to 6-1.

A big part of Myrtle Beach’s lead was the success of starting pitcher Luis Devers (W, 1-2). Devers went five innings, allowing only a pair of hits from Columbia’s bats.

Ben Hernandez (L, 0-1) struggled in his third start since last Tuesday. The righty worked a season-low 3.1 innings and allowed five runs (three earned) in the stretch. BJ Murray homered in the second to start the scoring, but Myrtle Beach added a pair in the third, and one in the fourth before the Chicago-native would leave the game.

The knockout inning came in the seventh for Myrtle Beach. A ground out and a pair of wild pitches with the bases loaded allowed the Pelicans to score a trio of runs to increase their lead to 9-1.

Columbia closes out their series with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans tomorrow at TicketReturn.com Field at Pelicans Stadium at 6:05 pm. RHP Matt Stil (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will start his first game of 2022 for the Fireflies and Myrtle Beach counters with righty Tyler Schlaffer (0-1, 4.91 ERA).

The Fireflies return home for a series vs the Delmarva Shorebirds May 2-8. The series will include a t-shirt giveaway, a Star Wars- themed fireworks show, a Budweiser Thirsty Thursday and much more fun! Tickets are available at FirefliesTickets.com.