The Columbia Fireflies and Charleston RiverDogs were again locked in another pitching duel after Thursday night’s 1-0 game which the Fireflies dropped. The Fireflies Tyler Badamo and RiverDogs Simon De la Rosa were both on their game but both reached their pitch counts and each were pulled after going five innings.
Badamo gave up a run in the bottom of the fourth when Charleston was able to string together three straight singles after Badamo retired the first two batters quickly. Charleston’s Austin Afenir singles, Leonardo Molina followed with another single, and Kendall Coleman singled scoring Afenir, making it 1-0 RiverDogs.
The Fireflies came right back in their top of the fifth. The inning started off bad when Vicente Lupo struck out, but Kevin Kaczmarski reached on an error by Charleston first baseman Chris Gittens. Up next was Vinny Siena who has been struggling at the plate in May (hitting .220) doubled off the center field wall scoring Kaczmarski and tying the game at one. Siena was stranded at second when J.C. Rodriguez flied out to right and catcher Patrick Mazeika was called out on strikes.
Right-hander Tyler Bashlor entered the sixth and pitch a perfect inning. In the Fireflies top of the seventh Siena drew a walk with two out but Rodriguez grounded out to third base. Bashlor continued his excellent relief by not allowing any runners to reach in the RiverDogs half of the seventh.
Mazeika walked to lead off the eighth with the game tied at one but never reached second, Dash Winningham lined out to left, Milton Ramos flied out to right, and Ivan Wilson struck out swinging.
Fireflies’ reliever Bashlor came back out for the bottom of the eight for his third inning of work which was his longest outing of the year. Bashlor retired the first two batters but then he walked Angel Aguilar. Aguilar took off for second when Jhalan Jackson hit a ball to third baseman J.C. Rodriguez who rushed his throw trying to get the out at first throwing it by first baseman Winningham, the ball bounced into right field allowing Aguilar to score an unearned run to put the RiverDogs in front 2-1. The Fireflies ninth inning went quickly as the RiverDogs (26-14) Cody Carroll struck out the side as the second place Fireflies (20-21) fell 6.5 games behind the first place RiverDogs.
Bashlor took the loss (0-1) even though he gave up only one hit over three innings, striking out three and lowering his ERA to 1.45. Charleston’s Carroll (2-1) picked up the win by going four innings and striking out seven.
Mazeika went 1 for 2 with two walks on the night and has reached base six times in his first three games of the 2016 season. Siena was 1 for 2 with his 10th double of the season and walked twice.
Fireflies starter Badamo, went five innings allowing one run on five hits, three walks and struck out three. Over his last three starts he has given up only three earned runs in 16 innings and has lowered his season ERA to 3.54 in 40.2 innings. Box Score
