Columbia Fireflies Game Notes at Charleston 7.18
Published on July 18, 2026 under Carolina League (CarL)
Columbia Fireflies News Release
The Fireflies continue their series with the Charleston RiverDogs tonight at 6:05 pm at The Joe. LHP Darwin Rodriguez (4-5, 3.89 ERA) toes the rubber for Columbia and Charleston counters with RHP Alex Wallace (1-5, 5.13 ERA).
Columbia returns home July 21-26 to play the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at Segra Park. The club will host their first-ever True Crime Mystery Night Thursday, July 23, giveaway an ugly Christmas Sweater Jersey to the first 1,000 in attendance July 24 and host Dino Night presented by SC Department of Environmental Services July 25. Buy your tickets now at FirefliesTickets.com.
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EARLY OFFENSE LEADS WAY FOR 5-4 WIN FOR FIREFLIES: The Fireflies bats tagged the Charleston RiverDogs for a run in each of the four innings to win 5-4 over Charleston Friday night at The Joe. Hyungchan Um drove the Fireflies ahead with his eighth homer of the season to left field with two outs in the fourth. The round-tripper gave Columbia a 4-3 lead and capped off a stretch of four straight innings with a run scored for the Fireflies bats. Columbia got some insurance in the seventh. Roni Cabrera drew a lead-off walk and came around on a two-out triple from Yandel Ricardo to push Columbia to a 5-3 lead.
STERLING STARTERS: The Fireflies starting rotation has the top ERA in Minor League Baseball this season. The group has recorded a 19-19 record combined with a 3.43 ERA over 388.2 innings through the first 88 games of the season. Fireflies starters have 389 strikeouts and have held opponents to a .237 AVG on the season. The Frederick Keys have the second-best mark in MiLB with a 3.66 through 361.2 innings pitched this season. Overall, the Fireflies hold the fifth-best team ERA in Minor League Baseball at 4.14. The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers lead the way with a 3.79 mark.
LUMINOUS LOMBARDI: Michael Lombardi has been a master of the strikeout this season. Friday, he etched four strikeouts across 4.1 innings of work. Lombardi has the fifth-most strikeouts (96) in Single-A over 64.2 innings of work. Rancho Cucamonga's Dylan Jordan and Fresno's Brady Parker lead the way with 100 strikeouts this season. Lombardi is on the doorstep of becoming the seventh Fireflies pitcher to strikeout 100 batters in a season. Tony Dibrell owns the Fireflies single-season strikeout record at 147. Lombardi is one strikeout away from matching Logan Martin (2024), Luinder Avila (2022) and Simeon Woods Richardson (2019) for the 10th-most strikeouts in a season in club history.
RISPY BUSINESS: The Fireflies enter today's in fourth place in the Carolina League with a .254 batting average with runners in scoring position. The Charleston RiverDogs lead the way with a .273 average. Over the course of the last two weeks, Columbia's bats have slowed down though. The team is hitting just .219 (32-146) with runners in scoring position over their last 14 games.
THE GAMBLER: Sean Gamble struggled out of the gates at the plate this season. The first rounder hit just .118 across 21 games in April, but near the end of May, the centerfielder turned the page. Since May 21, Gamble is hitting .270 across 43 games. He is second on the team in OBP (.404), third in OPS (.809) and leads the club in runs scored (33) and stolen bases (18) during the stretch.
MOVING ON UP: This week, 2025 Fireflies pitcher David Shields was added to the MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects list. He joins Kendry Chourio ('25-'26) and Josh Hammond (current) as top prospects on that list.
THE GREAT HOMERUN RACE: Last night, Hyungchan Um smashed his eighth homer of the season to left field. He now matches JC Vanek and Ivan Sosa for the most homers on the Fireflies this season. Last year, only Ramon Ramirez cracked double-digit homers for Columbia (11). 2018 and 2024 are the only two seasons in franchise history where more than two players have mashed 10 homers for the Fireflies. This year, Sosa, Um, Vanek and Roni Cabrera, who has seven round-trippers are all on pace to do it.
Carolina League Stories from July 18, 2026
- RidgeYaks Rally Past Shorebirds, Even Series with 10-5 Victory - Salem RidgeYaks
- Guerrero's Late Homer Lifts 'Dads - Hickory Crawdads
- Woodpeckers Take Series over Augusta Behind Four-Run Rally - Fayetteville Woodpeckers
- Cerda's Five Runs Driven in Tilts Kannapolis Towards Win Saturday Night - Kannapolis Cannon Ballers
- Pelicans Clipped by Cannon Ballers 6-2 - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- FredNats Drop Doubleheader, Lose a Series for the First Time in 98 Days - Fredericksburg Nationals
- Woodpeckers Take Series over Augusta Behind Four-Run Rally - Fayetteville Woodpeckers
- Pelicans Clipped by Cannon Ballers, 6-2 - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Wallace Delivers Strong Start, RiverDogs Fall, 9-2 - Charleston RiverDogs
- Sloppy Fourth Inning Leads Augusta to Loss in Fayetteville - Augusta GreenJackets
- Hickory Claims Series from Wilson with Eighth Inning Homer - Wilson Warbirds
- Delmarva Drops Game 2 to RidgeYaks - Delmarva Shorebirds
- Hammond Becomes Fourth Firefly to Notch 5-Hit Game - Columbia Fireflies
- Columbia Fireflies Game Notes at Charleston 7.18 - Columbia Fireflies
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