4/9/16

Charleston 5 - Columbia 4


The Fireflies mounted a ninth inning rally on Friday night at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park, but it was Charleston who had the final say, scoring the game-winning run in the bottom half of the frame, handing Columbia a 5-4 loss.
Trailing Charleston (2-0) by two runs at the start of the ninth, David Thompson started the frame with a screaming line-drive double down the left-field line. After the next two batters recorded outs, Vicente Lupo doubled in Thompson and then he scored when Milton Ramos laced a single to right field.

The score held at 4-4 momentarily. RiverDogs designated hitter Chris Gittens doubled off of right-hander Witt Haggard (L, 0-1) and then scored on a Jhalan Jackson single to centerfield. Andrew Schwabb (W, 1-0) was credited with the win.

For the second straight night, Columbia (0-2) jumped out to an early lead. With two down in the opening frame, four straight Fireflies hitters --Vinny Siena, Dash Winningham, Thompson and J.C. Rodriguez -- singled off of Charleston starter Will Carter, the latter two driving in the runs. It was 2-0 after a half inning.

But the RiverDogs scored a run in the fourth and stole the lead away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Siena reached base three times on Friday, and after two games, has reached safely five times in nine plate appearances. Thompson finished with a multi-hit night as well.

A great moment on Friday came when reliever Tyler Bashlor took the mound in the seventh frame. The last time the Springfield, Georgia, native toed the rubber was August 28, 2013. He missed the last two seasons due to an arm injury, but came out firing in Charleston, tossing two scoreless innings and striking out five batters.

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