Lindsay, Paez lead Fireflies to fifth straight victory
The Columbia Fireflies continued their push for a South Atlantic Southern Division title.
Desmond Lindsay hit a solo homer, and former Coastal Carolina standout Michael Paez added a two-run double as the Fireflies defeated the Charleston RiverDogs, 3-1, on Friday at Spirit Communications Park.
It was the Fireflies’ fifth consecutive victory and kept them three games behind division-leading Greenville with a little more than a week left in the first half. Columbia is at The Drive for a three-game series Tuesday through Thursday.
"We don’t talk about winning or losing," Fireflies manager Jose Leger said. "We talk about respecting the game, playing it the right way and having fun. These guys are doing it. They are combining good pitching with good defense and timely hitting. When you combine those three, you have a chance to win ball games."
Lindsay, who went 1-for-3, homered for the fourth time in 11 games with a 432-foot blast to put Columbia up 1-0 in the second. Paez added a two-run double in the fifth to make it 3-0. It was the second baseman’s league-leading 20th double.
Harol Gonzalez turned in one of his best outings of the year in picking up the win. Gonzlaez pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits while striking out six and walking two.
"That was a solid outing," Leger said of Gonzalez. "He got in trouble in the fifth with the bases loaded. But he got a guy to fly out and struck the next guy out. That was huge for him and he gave us two more solid innings. Our pitching has been outstanding. Guys have been giving us five or six strong innings lately."
Adonis Uceta pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to pick up the save. Uceta got Oswaldo Cabrera to ground out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning. The RiverDogs stranded nine runners.
Tim Tebow went 0-for-3 and struck out twice.
Former South Carolina standout Gene Cone turned in a pair of stellar defensive plays in right field. Cone had a diving catch to rob Angel Aguilar of an extra-base hit and threw out Estevan Florial at third in the eighth inning.
The teams will play a seven-inning doubleheader Saturday beginning at 5:05 p.m.
Charleston | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Florial cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Castillo ss | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Aguilar 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gilliam rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Sands c | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Ruta pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Navas c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Blaser lf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Cabrera 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wagner dh | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Alvarez 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
TOTALS | 35 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cone rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Carpio ss | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Paez 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Winningham 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Lindsay cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Sanchez c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Jabs dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Tebow lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Ramos 3b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS | 28 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
Charleston | 000 | 000 | 010 | — | 1 |
Columbia | 010 | 020 | 00x | — | 3 |
E — Gonzalez. LOB — Charleston 10; Columbia 5. 2B — Carpio; Paez. HR — Lindsay. SB — Ramos. CS — Cone.
Charleston | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Diehl L, 6-2 | 4 2/3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
Lane | 2 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Harris | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Gonzalez W, 3-4 | 7 2/3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
Uceta S, 4 | 1 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Umpires — HP: Forrest Ladd. 1B: Mark Bass. T — 2:52. A — 6,035.
This story was originally published June 10, 2017 at 12:52 AM with the headline "Lindsay, Paez lead Fireflies to fifth straight victory."