Columbia Fireflies Game Notes vs Salem 7.12
Published on July 12, 2026 under Carolina League (CarL)
Columbia Fireflies News Release
The Fireflies close out their series with the Salem RidgeYaks today at Segra Park at 1:05 pm. RHP Ryan McDonagh (1-2, 4.42 ERA) takes the bump for the Fireflies and Salem counters with RHP Jose Bello (0-3, 3.44 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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RAMIREZ CUE SHOT LEADS FIREFLIES TO WALK-OFF WIN: Angel Ramirez played hero as the Fireflies battled back to score four runs in the bottom of the 10th to beat the Salem RidgeYaks 9-8 Saturday Night at Segra Park. Stone Russell and Yandel Ricardo drew back-to-back one out walks to load the bases for Columbia. With two outs, Connor Rasmussen lined a single to left to score Sean Gamble, who was the placed runner to start the inning and Russell, which cut Salem's lead to 8-7. Next, Jhosmmel Zue drew a walk to load the bases. With Angel Ramirez at the plate, Harry Blum (L, 2-3) tossed a wild pitch that scored Ricardo to tie the game. After that, Ramirez played a cue shot off the bag at third to bring Rasmussen around to win the game 9-8. It was Columbia's second walk-off win of the season. Zue had a walk-off double vs Hickory May 16.
STERLING STARTERS: The Fireflies starting rotation has the top ERA in Minor League Baseball this season. The group has recorded a 18-19 record combined with a 3.45 ERA over 380.2 innings through the first 86 games of the season. Fireflies starters have 382 strikeouts and have held opponents to a .238 AVG on the season. The Frederick Keys have the second-best mark in MiLB with a 3.56 through 356.1 innings pitched this season.
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 fourth-most strikeouts (96) in Single-A over 64.2 innings of work. Rancho Cucamonga's Dylan Jordan leads 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 third place in the Carolina League with a .254 batting average with runners in scoring position. The Charleston RiverDogs lead the way with a .271 average. Over the course of the last two weeks, Columbia's bats have slowed down though. The team is hitting just .212 (25-118) with runners in scoring position over their last 12 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 .264 across 42 games. He is second on the team in OBP (.402) and OPS (.805) and leads the club in runs scored (33) and stolen bases (18) during the stretch.
RAVING ABOUT RAMOS: Yesterday, Henry Ramos hit an inside the park homer for the Fireflies. It is the third consecutive game that he has scored a runfor Columbia. So far this week, Ramos is 10-20 (.500) with three doubles, a homer, five walks and five runs scored in the first five games of the series. The outfielder has a .600 OBP and a 1.400 OPS.
HEY NOW, YOU'RE AN ALL-STAR: After today's game, the Fireflies head into the All-Star Break. The team will return to action Friday with a 7:05 pm matchup with the Charleston RiverDogs at 7:05 pm. There are 45 games remaining in the regular season after the break.
Carolina League Stories from July 12, 2026
- Columbia Fireflies Game Notes vs Salem 7.12 - Columbia Fireflies
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