Columbia 8 - Greenville 4

Press Release - 

GREENVILLE, SC – David Peterson (20^th overall) and Quinn Brodey (97^th) were two of the first three players selected by the Mets in the 2017 MLB First Year Player Draft. And with good reason. Peterson flummoxed Greenville hitters en route to his first win of the 2018 season and Brodey homered twice in Columbia’s 8-4 series-sweep clinching victory over the Drive on Wednesday. It was the first series sweep for the Fireflies since August 15-17, 2017 (@ Augusta).

Peterson – the Mets first round selection last June – scattered just three hits over six innings and punched out four. The 6-foot-6 left-hander over-powered Drive hitters in his first start with the Fireflies. At the plate, Brodey continued his red-hot road trip. His 10^th and 11^th hits of the six-game trip were towering opposite-field home runs – in consecutive innings! Brodey becomes the third Firefly in franchise history (Dash Winningham, Michael Paez; 2017) to notch a two-homer game, but the first to bash homers in consecutive innings. Brodey’s hit streak has reached seven games.

For the third straight night, Columbia (9-4) took a lead within the first two innings. A three-run second frame did the trick against Greenville (3-10) starter Kutter Crawford (L, 0-1). It began with a Jeremy Vasquez single and a Brodey walk. Two batters later, Walter Rasquin drove in a run with a base hit to center field and Raphael Gladu followed with a two-run single.

The bats were alive again in the third. Matt Winaker took a Crawford fastball off his leg and zipped to second when Vasquez smoked his second (of three on Wednesday) hits to left field. Then, Rigoberto Terrazas bounced a seeing-eye single up the middle that scored Winaker.

If not for Ramfis Berroa’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, Columbia would have kept the shutout going.

The Fireflies extended the lead to four runs in the sixth and did so with two outs on the board. First, Gladu tripled down the right-field line. Dan Rizzie then struck a fastball back up the middle and scored his teammate. That was Rizzie’s second RBI of the season and now becomes the 11^th Firefly hitter (of 12) that has multiple RBIs.

For the first time all series, Columbia ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the seventh. Cole Brannen ripped a double that plated a run and then C.J. Chatham followed that with a two-run double. Columbia’s 5-1 lead was whittled down to just 5-4. With Chatham – the tying run – sitting at second with just one out, Pedro Lopez went to his bullpen and called on righty Carlos Hernandez. The 23-year-old retired Pedro Castellanos and two hitters later struck out Victor Acosta looking, stranding the tying run on base.

Brodey was the final act of this convincing sweep with his dingers in the eighth and ninth innings. The first a solo shot, and the next a two-run blast.

After Hernandez danced out of trouble in the seventh, he struck out the side – which he has done now in back to back outings – in the eighth and Stephen Villines did the same in the ninth. Hernandez and Villines have tallied 11 and 13 strikeouts in just 5.2 and 9.1 IP respectively.

Also of note: Fireflies hitters totaled 64 hits and Columbia pitchers tallied 71 punch-outs during the six-game road trip. The Fireflies own the league’s highest batting average (.286) and the pitching staff has struck out the most batters (141) in the SAL.

Columbia returns home and starts a three-game series against the Hickory Crawdads at Spirit Communications Park on Thursday at 7:05 p.m