Columbia Fireflies Game Notes vs Fayetteville
August 11, 2021 - Carolina League (CarL)
Columbia Fireflies News Release
The Fireflies continue their series with the Woodpeckers tonight at 7:05 pm at Segra Park. RHP Cruz Noriega (4-3, 4.13 ERA) toes the rubber for the Fireflies and Fayetteville sends RHP Cody Deason (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to the bump.
Tonight is Trash the Poop Wag-Along Wednesday. All fans can bring their dog out to the ballpark with the purchase of a berm seat. In addition to that, we're celebrating White Claw Wednesday. Fans can purchase 16 oz White Claws for only $5 all evening long. Tickets are available at FirefliesTickets.com.
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FIREFLIES TAKE HOME SLUGFEST 21-5 TO START SERIES: The Columbia Fireflies utilized two grand slams in a record-setting evening where they beat the Fayetteville Woodpeckers 21-5 Tuesday night at Segra Park.Tyler Tolbert started the big bopping with his fourth homer of the season. After Columbia (39-45) loaded the bases with a trio of singles to lead-off the inning, starter Carlos Calderon (L, 0-1) got back-to-back outs without allowing a runner to advance. Tolbert came up to the plate and sent one onto the Bojangles Berm to make the score 6-0. They weren't done there. The next inning, Kale Emshoff had his own grand slam, the first time Columbia had hit a pair of grand slams in a single game. Emshoff also came up with a pair of outs and cranked his ball over the center field wall 400 feet away to increase Columbia's lead to 14-4.
HITTING HIS STRIDE: Kale Emshoff has been on an absolute tear over the course of the last week. In his last seven games, he is 15-27 (.556) with three homers, eight runs scored and 10 RBI. During the abbreviated stint, Columbia's backstop has a 1.514 OPS in 32 plate appearances. The seven-game streak is Emshoff's longest of the season.
TURNING TOLBERT: Not only can has the speedster played five different positions defensively this season, but now Tyler Tolbert is riding his second six-game hitting streak since the start of July. This time, Tolbert is 9-24 (.375), has three extra base hits, five walks and three stolen bases. Tolbert averaged .160 in May and June, but started his turnaround in July, averaging .228 in 25 games. The utility player has added pop to his bat too, hitting all four of his homers, including Tuesday's grand slam since the turn to July.
GARZA'S GANG: Since coming to Columbia, Saul Garza has been absolutely electric while being plugged into the heart of the Fireflies order. In his first 18 games, Garza is hitting .258 and has two homers and 14 RBI. The first baseman has been even better during his recent six game hitting streak. He is 8-22 (.364), has launched a homer and a double and has driven in seven RBI.
ONE RUN, NO FUN: The Fireflies have lost four of their last six games by the slimmest margin possible, which brings their 2021 record to 6-17 in one-run contests. The Fireflies have particularly struggled in close games in the last month. Since the start of July, the Fireflies are 2-12 in one-run games.
SAVING GRACE: After a tough start to the season, Zack Phillips has turned things around in his last few outings with the Fireflies. He has now only allowed one earned run in his last 10 innings (0.90 ERA) to drop his season ERA to 2.41. He began July giving up five runs in four innings. Phillips started the season in Quad Cities where he had a 7.2 inning scoreless streak before he was sent to Columbia.'
OFFENSE WINS GAMES: It may seem simple, if you score a lot of runs, you will win a lot of games, but after last night, the Fireflies have fallen to 3-31 when they are held to three runs or less. The correlation of scoring seems to be stronger than good pitching is to winning for Columbia as the team is now just 23-14 when they hold their opponent to three runs or less.
Carolina League Stories from August 11, 2021
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- Fireflies Take Advantage of Fayetteville Mistakes in 5-3 Win - Columbia Fireflies
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