Fireflies bounce back with balanced effort in win
After falling in the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday, the Columbia Fireflies bounced back with a 5-4 victory over the Lexington Legends Wednesday.
Columbia (3-4, 43-32) received contributions from up and down the lineup. Andres Gimenez, Brandon Brosher and Arnaldo Berrios all plated runs, as the Fireflies used two arms to tame the Legends. Harol Gonzalez (5-5) gutted through 6 2/3 innings before reliever Adonis Uceta finished the job. The righty picked up his seventh save in the process and struck out three.
Brosher made an immediate impact with a two-run double in the first inning.
Lexington (3-4, 37-39) cut the deficit in half with a run in the bottom of the third, but Brosher sparked another rally. He singled and stole second base in the fourth, before coming around to score on a single by Berrios, who was coming off Tuesday’s monster three-hit, four-RBI performance..
After the Legends clawed within a run, Milton Ramos began the fifth with a base hit and scored when Gimenez tripled. Gimenez touched home moments later when Luis Carpio reached on an error.
Lexington continued to fight and loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. Gonzalez was lifted for Uceta to face Joe Dudek, who lifted a towering fly ball into shallow left field. Three fielders converged but the pop up fell in, scoring two. Uceta then retired Gabriel Cancel to end the inning, and the South Atlantic League All-Star protected the one-run lead the rest of the way, clinching the 5-4 win.
Gimenez finished with three hits – his second three-hit game of the series. Brosher and Ali Sanchez also wound up with a pair of hits each.
The series finale between Columbia and Lexington is Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at Whitaker Bank Ballpark, and the Fireflies can win three of four from the Legends with a win. Right-hander Gabriel Llanes (4-4, 3.02) starts for the Fireflies and faces righty Ofreify Gomez (4-7, 4.33).
Columbia | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Gimenez ss | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Carpio 2b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Zanon cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Winningham dh | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Brosher 1b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Jabs lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Berrios rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Sanchez c | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Ramos 3b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
TOTALS | 38 | 5 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
Lexington | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Lee cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Gasparini lf | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rivera 3b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Dudek dh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Cancel 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Olloque 1b | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Villegas c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Melo rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Martin pr-rf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Brontsema ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
TOTALS | 37 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Columbia | 200 | 120 | 000 | — | 5 |
Lexington | 001 | 100 | 200 | — | 4 |
E — Sanchez (2), Brontsema (2). LOB — Columbia 6, Lexington 8. 2B — Brosher, Gasparini, Olloque. 3B — Gimenez. HR — Villegas. SB — Brosher, Gimenez, Gasparini, Martin. CS — Carpio, Zanon.
Columbia | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Gonzalez, W 5-5 | 6 2/3 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
Uceta, S 7 | 2 1/3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Lexington | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Hernandez, L 0-1 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Veras | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
WP — Hernandez. Umpires — HP: Emil Jimenez. 1B: Mike Snover. T — 3:07. A — 3,479.
This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Fireflies bounce back with balanced effort in win."