Fireflies Hang on to Win 6-5 Saturday in Charleston

COLUMBIA, SC – The Fireflies capitalized off some early offense to hold onto a 6-5 victory Saturday evening at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark.

Columbia (37-39) added a pair in the third inning, capitalizing off Diego Hernandez reaching on a fielding error to score Jean Ramirez and then Matthew Schmidt coming home on a bunt from Tyler Tolbert to start off the scoring.

The bats weren’t finished there though. Gage Hughes grounded into a force out the next inning to plate Juan Carlos Negret then Ramirez added a sacrifice fly to put the Fireflies up 4-0.

The final pair scored for Columbia in the sixth, when Herard Gonzalez skied a two-out fly ball to right that Diego Infante lost in the lights and became a triple that plated Hernandez and Tolbert to put Columbia up 6-0.

The pitching was phenomenal to start the game. Matt Stil held Charleston (54-22) scoreless for the first four innings before passing the ball to Emilio Marquez (W, 5-1), who worked another four innings, allowing only a single earned run to score. Then Chase Wallace came out in the ninth and only got one out, while allowing three runs to score. He was replaced by Ismael Aquino who left the game due to an injury suffered against the first batter he faced.

Walter Pennington (S, 4) then entered to face the final two batters to record his team-leading fourth save of the season.

Tomorrow Columbia wraps up their series with the Charleston Riverdogs at 5:05 pm at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark. RHP C.J. Eldred (0-0, 4.91 ERA) gets the ball for the Fireflies and Charleston will toss LHP Jose Lopez (3-5, 5.19 ERA).

Following this trek to Charleston, the Fireflies will play 12 games in 13 days at Segra Park beginning Augusta 3. During that period, they will play the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Fayetteville Woodpeckers. During the stretch, the team will celebrate Copa De La Diversión, the 13th in the Upside Down and Faith and Family Night. For tickets, visit FirefliesTickets.com.