Winningham off to fast start as Columbia wins again

Dash Winningham wasn’t sure if he would be back in Columbia to start this season.

If he keeps up this pace, Winningham won’t be here long.

The Columbia Fireflies first baseman drove in four runs for the second straight game in the 7-0 win over Augusta on Friday at Spirit Communications Park.

“Everything is kind of just happening right now,” Winningham said. “The ball is getting down, I’m squaring it up well. I’m enjoying it. But I am going to go out and play every game hard and see what happens.

Winningham played the whole season last year in Columbia and led the team in homers and RBI. He thought going into the spring it would be 50-50 he would be back in Columbia or at advanced-A Port St. Lucie.

But when Winningham found out he would be back in Columbia, where he is a fan favorite, he hoped to make the best of it and apply what he worked on in the offseason.

Winningham said he changed the separation of his hands more toward the catcher in his swing. Those changes have paid off through the first two games. The Florida native is 5-for-10 with a homer and eight RBIs through the first two games.

While Winningham delivered at the plate, Jordan Humphreys and two other pitchers combined on a three-hitter against the GreenJackets. Humphreys was dominant in his 85-pitch outing. The right-hander struck out nine and allowed just three hits in 5  2/3 innings.

“Humphreys absolutely killed it,” Winningham said. “He was phenomenal.”

Tim Tebow didn’t duplicate the excitement he provided on opening night, when he homered in his first at-bat. The former NFL quarterback went 1 for 5 for the second straight night. He singled to right field in his first at-bat on a hit-and-run that he placed perfectly in the spot where the second baseman was supposed to be.

In the fourth inning, Tebow brought the fans to their feet when he jumped on a pitch with the basses loaded for a loud out and was called out on close plays at first in his final two at-bats.

Jacob Zannon had three hits for Columbia (2-0) in his first start of the season.

D.J. Myers (0-1) took the loss for Augusta.

The Fireflies took control of the game in the third and fourth innings. In the third inning, Luis Carpio led off with a single and then stole second with one out. He advanced to third on a fly ball and scored on Winningham’s two-out single to make 1-0.

In the fourth, Columbia made it 2-0 on Blake Tiberi’s bases loaded walk. Winningham followed with a two-run double to score Carpio and Desmond Lindsay to make it 4-0.

The Fieflies have scored 21 runs in their first two games, their best two-game stretch since scoring 20 on June 28-29 against Hickory.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Winningham off to fast start as Columbia wins again."