Kevin Kaczmarski, Photo courtesy of Al Rabon
For the past two games the Columbia Fireflies (21-21) had only scored one run and had gone 8 for 61 (.131) but in Saturday night’s game against the Charleston RiverDogs (26-15) it didn’t take long for the Fireflies to get their bats going totaling up 15 hits. The Fireflies had nine hits after four innings which was one more than they had the two previous games combined, helping them to an 8-4 win over the Charleston RiverDogs.
Columbia scored twice in the first, Vinny Siena (3 for 4) got on with a single to left, J.C. Rodriguez (4 for 5) followed with a double, with runners on second and third Patrick Mazeika (3 for 4) at the plate RiverDogas pitcher Yefrey Ramirez threw a wild pitch scoring Siena. Mazeika would walk then Milton Ramos had an infield single scoring Rodriguez.
In the third inning, the Fireflies scored two more runs as Mazeika hit a line drive to center and two batters later Ivan Wilson hit his fourth home run over the left field wall. In the fourth inning, Kevin Kaczmarski singled to center, Siena added another single to left, and Rodriguez singled to left scoring Kaczmarski. Mazeika added another single loading the bases and knocked Ramirez out of the game, Charleston brought in Hobie Harris to face Ramos who promptly hit a deep fly ball to center scoring Siena.
The RiverDogs scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings, so going into the sixth it was 6-2 Fireflies. In the sixth the Fireflies added two more insurance runs, Kaczmarski singles to start the inning and moved over to second on a balk by Harris. One batter later J.C. Rodriguez hit a double (6) into center field scoring Kaczmarski. Ramos finished the scoring for the Fireflies when he hit his sixth double scoring Rodriguez making it 8-2 Fireflies.
The RiverDogs scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth off Nicco Blank who had replaced Joe Shaw (3-2). Shaw’s past two outings have been solid as he has given up four runs in 14 innings with 17 strikeouts along with a 2.57 ERA.
Top Performers –
Rodriguez went 4 for 5 with two doubles and two RBI while playing third base. Mazeika was 3 for 4 with a walk and a runs scored, he has reached base ten times in his first four games of the year. Ramos was 2 for 4 with a double and three RBI. Siena was one base four time with three hits and a walk while scoring twice.
Possible injury note – Third baseman David Thompson was out of the lineup for the second straight night.
Tomorrow will be the final game of the series with Chase Ingram ( 3-2, 3.00) going for the Fireflies and Daris Vargas (3-0, 2.05) will go for Charleston. Game Time is 5:05 PM ET.
