Fireflies walk-off winners on wild pitch; Tebow drives in 2 runs
The Columbia Fireflies snapped a four-game losing skid Saturday, getting their first win of the second half of the South Atlantic League season in dramatic fashion.
Trailing by a run entering the bottom of the ninth inning at Spirit Communications Park, the Fireflies scored twice – without a base hit – to rally past the Kannapolis Intimidators, 4-3. Jay Jabs scored the game-winning run for Columbia, racing home from third base on a wild pitch with two outs.
Kannapolis relief pitcher Ben Wright (1-6) struggled with his control in the ninth, walking the first two batters he faced – Dash Winningham and Jabs. Milton Ramos laid down a sac bunt that put both Fireflies runners in scoring position and Tim Tebow followed with a run-scoring ground out to tie the score.
With catcher Dan Rizze batting, Wright uncorked the wild pitch, allowing Jabs to score.
Adonis Uceta (3-0) got the win for the Fireflies, tossing a scoreless top of the ninth. He was joined by Adam Atkins and Matt Blackham with scoreless work in relief of Gabriel Llanes, who allowed three runs on nine hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innigs.
Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback, drove in two runs without a hit, as the Fireflies strained for the win with only two hits as a team.
Jabs had a double and scored twice for Columbia, which will look to split the four-game series on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m.
Kannapolis | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
L Gonzalez cf | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Roman 2b-ss | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Schnurbusch lf | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Adolfo rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Dulin 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Dexter 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Remillard 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Massey ss-1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Gonzalez c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Franco dh | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
TOTALS | 35 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Cone cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Carpio 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Zanon lf | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Winningham 1b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Jabs 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Ramos ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Tebow dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Rizzie c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Berrios rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
TOTALS | 25 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
Kannapolis | 002 | 010 | 000 | — | 3 |
Columbia | 000 | 000 | 204 | — | 4 |
E — Carpio, Llanes. LOB — Kannapolis 8; Columbia 4. 2B — Jabs. HR — Schnurbusch. SF — Ramos, Tebow. PB — Rizzie. CS — Franco.
Kannapolis | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Peralta | 2 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Valerio | 3 2/3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Escorcia | 1 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Wright, L 1-6 | 2/3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Llanes | 6 2/3 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
Atkins | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Blackham | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Uceta, W 3-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
WP — Wrigth, Llanes. Umpires — HP: Jude Koury. 1B: Aaron Schorch. T — 2:58. A — 5,079.
This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 12:23 AM with the headline "Fireflies walk-off winners on wild pitch; Tebow drives in 2 runs."