Columbia Fireflies Game Notes at Kannapolis July 28
July 28, 2022 - Carolina League (CarL)
Columbia Fireflies News Release
The Fireflies continue their series with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers tonight at Atrium Health Ballpark at 7 pm. RHP Luinder Avila (5-7, 4.56 ERA) gets the nod for Columbia and Kannapolis counters with RHP RHP Noah Owen (5-7, 4.91 ERA).
Columbia returns home to Segra Park August 2-7 to play the Charleston RiverDogs. You'll want to get to the game early August 5, as the Fireflies are giving out a lunchbox to the first 1,000 fans through the gates on Back to School Night, presented by Webster University. We'll also be hosting Nickelodeon PAW Patrol Night presented by SC DSS August 6 that'll include appearances from Chase and Marshall! Tickets are available at FirefliesTickets.com.
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PENA BLAST HELPS FIREFLIES EVEN UP SERIES: The Fireflies used a blast and five scoreless innings from the pen to upend Kannapolis 8-3 Wednesday afternoon at Atrium Health Ballpark. Columbia (15-10) took the lead in the fourth off the bat of Erick Peña, who clipped his second homer of the series to score River Town and Carter Jensen to put the Fireflies in front 5-3. It was the first time a Fireflies player had homered in back-to-back contests since Town did so May 15 and 17. The name of the game for Columbia was pitching. After Shane Panzini allowed three runs in the first two innings, he settled down to work through four innings before turning things over to the bullpen. In his second outing as a Fireflies pitcher, Oscar Rayo (W, 1-0) spun four scoreless innings to keep Kannapolis (16-10) at bay, striking out a handful of batters and allowing only four base runners in the process. Ben Wereski closed out the game with a scoreless ninth. The Fireflies added a run of insurance in the seventh when Daniel Vazquez sent a sacrifice fly to right to score Omar Hernandez to give the Fireflies a 6-3 lead. In the ninth, it was Vazquez again who came through for the Fireflies, singling to plate Hernandez and Omar Florentino to push the Fireflies lead to five.
POSITIVE STRIDES IN THE PEN: Righties Shane Connolly and Luis Barroso have found their grooves in the month of July in the bullpen. The two have combined to allow just one earned run in 11.1 innings across the month. Connolly's ERA has dipped from 9.67 after his outing vs Carolina June 18 to 7.67 following his 1.1 innings yesterday. For Barroso, he's seen his ERA drop from 7.54 after his loss to Charleston June 23 to 5.19 after a pair of scoreless frames yesterday.
HERNANDEZ HEATING UP: Backstop Omar Hernandez's bat has been heating up the last 10 games. During the run, which began July 4, Columbia's catcher has seen his batting average rise from .205 to .217 and he has had three of his five multi-hit games on the season. Hernandez has gone 1-4 with a pair of RBI in each of his last two games. He has seven of the 15 RBI he has hit on the season in his last 10 games (he has played 59 games this season).
THE CHASE: After having at least a share of the division lead for 19 of the first 20 games of the second half, Columbia finds themselves 0.5 games back of Kannapolis in the standings after canceling their game Sunday and losing by one Tuesday while Kannapolis was able to win both of those games. The division is battling closely behind Columbia and Kannapolis too as Charleston sits two games behind the Fireflies (2.5 back of first) and Myrtle Beach is 1.5 back of Columbia (2.0 games out of first).
RALLY FIREFLIES: Columbia is outscoring opponents in only one inning this season, but it's an important one: the ninth. In the final frame of regulation, Columbia is outscoring opponents 34-27 this season. That really helps in late and close situations, and after scoring three runs in the seventh and eighth last night, Columbia is 14-11 in 25 one-run games throughout the 2022 season.
NEW FACES IN THE ORG: Last night, the Kansas City Royals announced a trade with the New York Yankees that sent outfielder Andrew Benintendi to the Big Apple and brought right-handed pitchers Chandler Champlain and Beck Way, as well as lefty T.J. Sikkema to the Royals organization. All three pitchers were playing in High-A or Class-A ball.
Carolina League Stories from July 28, 2022
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- Lynchburg Hillcats Fall Back Below .500 After Dropping Thursday Night's Game to Delmarva Shorebirds - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Loperfido's Two-Homer Night Launches Woodpeckers to Win over Mudcats - Fayetteville Woodpeckers
- Goss Cruises on Mound as RiverDogs Top Wood Ducks 3-1 - Charleston RiverDogs
- Perez Homers in 5-1 Loss in Fayetteville - Carolina Mudcats
- GreenJackets Suffer Gut-Wrenching Defeat in Game Three - Augusta GreenJackets
- Extra Inning Error Flops Fireflies - Columbia Fireflies
- Four-Run First Propels 'Birds to 8-5 Win over Hillcats - Delmarva Shorebirds
- Columbia Fireflies Game Notes at Kannapolis July 28 - Columbia Fireflies
- Deaf Awareness Night Returns to Pelicans Ballpark - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
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