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Holderman and Humphreys Highlight First Week in Columbia

By Jacob Resnick

April 11, 2017 3 Comments

(MiLB.com)

(MiLB.com)

Colin Holderman couldn’t wait to make his season debut for the Columbia Fireflies, but he had to watch four games — a whole series — go by before he could do so.

When his turn finally came, Monday night against the Hickory Crawdads, Holderman seemed to let loose any and all energy that had bottled up since the season had commenced.

“I was looking forward to this for a while,” Holderman said. “It’s been a while since I started. Being the fifth guy in the rotation, I had to watch four guys beforehand, so I was nervous. But I was ready to go and brought it.”

Bring it he did, as the 21-year-old allowed only one hit over six shutout innings, walking none and striking out 11, which set a Fireflies single game record.

Holderman was making his first professional start. As a ninth round pick out of Heartland Community College in 2016, he was held to a bullpen role as the Mets preserved his innings in his debut season.

“Our guys have been lights out so far, just great pitching all around,” he said. “I felt a little extra pressure to come through as well. The first few games, our guys were really shoving, really throwing well. So I definitely used it as extra motivation because I didn’t want to be that guy to be the one to slow us down.”

The recent run of success by Fireflies pitchers was punctuated by Holderman, but started by another young right-hander, 20-year-old Jordan Humphreys, who similarly could not be touched last Friday.

Humphreys lasted 5.2 innings, in which he allowed no runs, three hits, walked one, and struck out nine.

The Crystal River, FL native teamed up with Holderman last season at Kingsport (R), where they led a formidable rotation and bullpen. Humphreys struggled early in the year, but finished strong, striking out at least seven batters in each of his last three starts. That stretch led to a promotion to Brooklyn (SS-A), where he punched out nine hitters in his lone appearance with the Cyclones.

The Fireflies are rolling, having won their first five ballgames, and while Tim Tebow and the offense have been up to the task, the Columbia pitching staff is largely responsible for this stretch of dominance.

In addition to Holderman and Humphreys, Merandy Gonzalez, the Mets’ 14th best prospect according to MLB.com, made his presence known in his season debut. The 21-year-old native of the Dominican Republic struck out six over six scoreless innings on Sunday, a 6-0 Fireflies victory.

“Good pitching beats good hitting all the time and that is what we are doing,” said Columbia skipper Jose Leger. “We are locating, getting ahead of the count and mixing their off-speed pitches. And that is what it is all about.”

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