Llanes shines as Fireflies win eighth straight game
Gabriel Llanes finished one out shy of his second complete game of the season, but his effort on Sunday still led Columbia to a 3-2 victory over Charleston. The Fireflies have won eight in a row and 10 straight at home. With seven games left in the first half of the season, Columbia is just a half-game behind the first-place Greenville Drive.
Llanes (W, 4-3) has logged seven or more innings in three consecutive starts. His outing on Sunday wasn’t even his longest of the season; on May 10, the right-hander went the distance and defeated the Delmarva Shorebirds in Maryland.
“I was feeling yesterday, knowing I wanted to come out and keep the streak going,” Llanes said. “I was able to locate my fastball down in zone, and my defense was amazing behind me.”
A Columbia (36-25) starter has lasted six or more innings in seven consecutive games (all wins).
The only Charleston (30-33) offense came in the third (Eduardo Navas home run) and fifth (Navas run-scoring groundout) frames.
Dash Winningham, Luis Carpio and Jay Jabs began the second inning with consecutive singles. Two batters later,Tim Tebow drilled a base hit that plated two.
With Ali Sanchez at third, Reed Gamache soared a fly ball to right field. Isiah Gilliam made the catch but could not throw out Sanchez tagging from third.
The Fireflies face the RiverDogs on Monday at 7:05 p.m.
Charleston | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Park ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cabrera 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Gilliam rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Aguilar 2b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Blaser lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Alvarez dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wagner 1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ruta cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Navas c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
TOTALS | 30 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cone cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gimenez ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Paez 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Winningham 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Carpio 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jabs rf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Sanchez c | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Tebow lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Gamache dh | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS | 28 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Charleston | 001 | 010 | 000 | — | 2 |
Columbia | 030 | 000 | 00X | — | 3 |
E — Paez. DP — Charleston 1; Columbia 4. LOB — Charleston 3; Columbia 4. 2B — Wagner. HR — Navas. CS — Tebow. SF — Gamache.
Charleston | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Rosa L, 1-2 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Sosebee | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Llanes W, 4-3 | 8 2/3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Uceta S, 5 | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
HBP — Aguilar (by Llanes); Paez (by Rosa). Umpires — HP: Mark Bass. 1B: Forrest Ladd. T — 2:20. A — 5,248.
This story was originally published June 11, 2017 at 10:56 PM with the headline "Llanes shines as Fireflies win eighth straight game."