Collins Clubs Walk-Off Grand Slam to Ground Pelicans

COLUMBIA, S.C. – With one out and the bases loaded in the 10th, Darryl Collins stepped to the dish and clubbed a walk-off grand slam to lift the Fireflies over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 6-2 Saturday night at Segra Park.

The homer was Collins third of the season and the first walk-off blast in Columbia Fireflies history. The last time the franchise hit a walk-off homer was in Savannah when Jonathan Johnson hit one August 31, 2015 vs the Augusta GreenJackets. It was the Fireflies first walk-off since Chase Chambers had a walk-off sacrifice fly August 11, 2019.

The blast was set up from another excellent outing from the Fireflies bullpen. Chase Wallace was the first arm out of the pen and the righty went 1.2 scoreless innings before leaving the game with an apparent arm injury. After that he handed the ball to Emilio Marquez who twirled 2.2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts to allow the Fireflies bats an opportunity to tie the game with one run in the seventh and eighth. Patrick Smith (W, 2-1) closed the game out striking out four of the six batters he faced and stranding the placed extra inning runner to set up the heroics from Collins. The Fireflies bullpen has now offered 12 consecutive scoreless innings across the last two games.

Matt Stil struggled out the gates, facing eight batters in the first. The inning started with Cubs’ first round pick Ed Howard blasting his first professional homer off the left field foul pole to give the Pelicans ahead 1-0. After that, the righty loaded the bases with two outs off two walks and a hit by pitch. Ethan Hearn squibbed a 10-foot single up the third base line to give the Pelicans a 2-0 lead before the Fireflies could pick up a bat.

The Fireflies close out the series with Myrtle Beach tomorrow at 5:05 pm at Segra Park. Southpaw Rylan Kaufman (1-2, 5.02 ERA) gets the nod for Columbia and the Pelicans will send Adam Laskey (0-2, 8.48 ERA) to the rubber for a second time this series.

Gates open for the final Fireflies home game of June at 4 pm for tomorrows contest. Fans can purchase tickets at FirefliesTickets.com.