Fireflies shut out, miss chance to clinch playoff spot
The Columbia Fireflies missed an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot on Saturday night, falling to the Charleston RiverDogs 3-0.
Earlier in the day, the Greenville Drive lost to the Rome Braves, 8-5, meaning a Fireflies win would clinch first place in the South Atlantic League’s South Division at the All-Star break, earning Columbia a playoff berth.
Instead, the Fireflies were shut out by the RiverDogs, and the division will be decided on Sunday, the final day of the first half of the season.
Either a Columbia win or a loss by second-place Greenville will clinch a playoff spot for the Fireflies, who will play host to the SAL All-Star Game and Home Run Derby at Spirit Communications Park this week. Should Columbia lose and Greenville beat Rome, the Drive would jump the Fireflies in the standings and earn the automatic postseason berth.
Charleston starting pitcher Brian Keller (5-5) tossed six scoreless innings for the win. He allowed two hits and four walks, but avoided surrendering a run with the help of eight strikeouts.
David Sosebee followed with two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, before Garrett Mundell escaped trouble in the ninth inning for his sixth save of the season. The Fireflies loaded the bases, but Mundell got Andres Gimenez to strikeout to end the game.
Thomas Szapucki (1-1) took the loss for Columbia, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk in six innings. He didn’t get any help from the Fireflies offense, which was limited to four hits – all singles.
Dash Winningham, Jay Jabs, Tim Tebow and Milton Ramos singled for Columbia, which will end the series and first half on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cone cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Gimenez ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Paez 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Winningham 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Jabs rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Brosher dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Tebow lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Ramos 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Rizzie c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Carpio ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS | 31 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 12 |
Charleston | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Park 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Rutherford lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Aguilar 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Florial cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Sands c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gilliam dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Palma rf | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Alvarez 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Castillo ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS | 25 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
Columbia | 000 | 000 | 000 | — | 0 |
Charleston | 000 | 020 | 01x | — | 3 |
E — Tebow; Sands. LOB — Columbia 11; Charleston 2. 2B — Palma. SB — Paez. CS — Florial. PO — Sands, Florial.
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Szapucki, L 1-1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
Taylor | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Zanghi | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Charleston | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Keller | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
Sosbee | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Mundell | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
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WP — Szapucki. HBP — Sands (by Szapucki). Umpires — HP: Emil Jimenez. 1B: Mike Snover. T — 2:55. A — 7,331.
This story was originally published June 17, 2017 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Fireflies shut out, miss chance to clinch playoff spot."