Columbia Fireflies Game Notes September 4 at Carolina
September 4, 2022 – Carolina League (CarL) – Columbia Fireflies News Release
The Fireflies close out their penultimate series of the season at 1 pm vs the Carolina Mudcats at Five County Stadium. RHP Luinder Avila (6-9, 4.50 ERA) toes the slab for Columbia and Carolina counters with RHP Logan Henderson (0-0, 1.50 ERA).
The Fireflies return to Segra Park for their final homestand of the season September 6-11 to face the Charleston RiverDogs as they fight for their first playoff berth in franchise history. Join the Fireflies for the final fireworks show of the year, a t-shirt giveaway and Wands and Wizards night to close out the regular season! Tickets are available at FirefliesTickets.com.
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EIGHT-RUN RALLY FALLS JUST SHORT SATURDAY: The Fireflies entered the eighth down 8-0, then rallied and came up one run short of tying the game, losing 8-7 vs the Carolina Mudcats Saturday night at Five County Stadium. Down 8-0 in the eighth, the Fireflies (33-25) bats began to rally. With one out, Javier Vaz walked before Omar Hernandez got Columbia on the board with a double. Next, Gavin Cross singled and then Carter Jensen walked to load the bases for Guillermo Quintana. Quintana came through, singling to move everyone station-to-station. Daniel Vazquez copied Quintana, dribbling a grounder up the middle, this time scoring a pair of runs, making the score 8-4 in favor of Carolina (32-27). The inning wasn’t quite over yet. After Dayton Dooney drew a nine pitch walk to load the bases again, David Hollie flew a sacrifice fly to center and then Cayden Wallace smacked a pinch-hit ground-rule double to bring Columbia within a pair. After Guillermo Quintana singled to score Cross to bring Columbia within one in the ninth, Daniel Vazquez walked to bring Dayton Dooney to the dish. Dooney smoked a 2-2 pitch just feet foul beyond the left field wall and then struck out on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first.
JUMP-STARTING JENSEN: Carter Jensen has reached base safely in 22-consecutive games, which is the second-longest on-base streak for Columbia this season and the third-longest active on-base streak in the Carolina League. Eddison Paulino paces the pack as he has reached safely in 32-consecutive games. Not far behind Jensen is centerfielder Gavin Cross, who has now reached safely in 19-straight contests.
OMAR HERNANDEZ, RBI MACHINE: The Fireflies backstop has had at least one RBI in six consecutive contests, which is the second-longest active streak in Class-A ball, the longest streak in the Carolina League. The seven RBI Hernandez has had on the stretch has put him at 31 RBI this season, which is a career-high in his three seasons in professional baseball. Hernandez has had an incredible season of growth in his second season with Columbia, increasing his average 51 points while playing in 83 games compared to 69 last season.
SECOND-HALF FIREFLIES?: After trudging to the finish line of the first-half of the season with a Carolina League-worst 18-48 record, the Fireflies burst onto the scene in the second-half, sweeping Augusta after taking two of the first three games with the RiverDogs to begin the second slate 8-1. Since then, the Fireflies have a 25-24 record (.510) and are 3.5 games back of first place. Columbia’s elimination number is 5 with 7 games remaining. Columbia has now won four series this season, and all four series (at Augusta June 28-July 3, at Myrtle Beach August 9-14, vs Kannapolis August 16-21 and vs Salem August 23-28) have come in the second half.
100 CLUB: Last Sunday, Luinder Avila became the first pitcher since 2019 to spin 100 innings in a single campaign. Last season, Adrian Alcantara was the closest, as he worked 97.1 innings. In 2019, Willy Taveras, Christian James and Jose Butto all spun at least 100 innings for the Fireflies.
THE SITUATION: The Fireflies face the first-place Charleston RiverDogs in a six-game series at Segra Park Tuesday-Sunday. As it stands, Columbia would have to win five of those six games to punch their ticket to the 2022 Carolina League Playoffs.
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