Merritt's Clutch Swing Leads Augusta to Chaotic Win
CarL Augusta GreenJackets

Merritt's Clutch Swing Leads Augusta to Chaotic Win

Published on April 21, 2026 under Carolina League (CarL)
Augusta GreenJackets News Release


COLUMBIA, SC: The GreenJackets scored in six of their final seven offensive innings, trading blows with the Columbia Fireflies in a series-opening clash that spanned ten innings before the Jackets pulled ahead 7-6.

Augusta's bats were nowhere to be found early, as starter Jordan Woods carved through the first nine batters he faced without a runner allowed to flummox the GreenJackets. Woods was making his first start of the year, and impressed early and often.

While Woods went to work, the Fireflies fought their way to an early lead against Logan Forsythe, also in his first start of the year. After a scoreless first, Forsythe was unable to hold back Columbia's bottom of the order, as a two-out walk, error, and RBI single from Connor Rasmussen gave the Fireflies the lead. Columbia doubled the advantage the very next inning, as Brooks Bryan ambushed a high fastball for a solo blast.

Woods finally proved mortal in the 4th, as Tate Southisene led off the inning with a double. Southisene took third on a base hit from Luis Guanipa, and a double steal attempt had Guanipa hung out to dry, but still allowed Southisene to come home. The Jackets tied the game one inning later, as an E5 off the bat of Caden Merritt scored Dalton McIntyre from third in Woods' final inning.

The seesaw truly began in the back half of the game, as Augusta took its first lead in th 6th against Yeri Perez. Perez issued a leadoff walk to Southisene, who then dashed around the bases on a steal, wild pitch, and Guanipa sac fly. Columbia, of course, came back to tie the game immediately, as Hyungchan Um attacked the first pitch of the bottom half from Aiven Cabral and sent it soaring over the left field wall.

Augusta bounced back in the 7th to retake the lead against Kyle DeGroat, who tossed a bases loaded wild pitch to the backstop to allow a run. DeGroat would hold his ground beyond that, however, as he induced a popup to strand two in scoring position. From there, Columbia took its first lead since the early goings. Singles from Rasmussen and Josh Hammond put two on with two out, and Bryan rolled an infield single that was booted by Alex Lodise to allow both men to score.

It was Augusta's turn to steal the lead back in the 8th, as McIntyre clubbed a two-run home run to put the Jackets up 6-5. McIntyre, who had zero career home runs as of about 72 hours ago, now has two in his last two starts. Once again, Cabral got to two outs with a man on in the bottom half, but Stone Russell swiped second and then sprinted home on a Daniel Lopez base hit to tie the game.

Neither side could score in the 9th, forcing Augusta to extras for the second time this year. In the 10th, it was Merritt who proved heroic for the Jackets, slicing a one-out single into left-center to score McIntyre and take one last lead. The Fireflies would give their best shot in the 10th, having two on against Jaylen Paden, but Paden induced back-to-back flyouts to strand the tying run at third and pick up his second save of the season.

With their first extra-inning win of the year behind them, the Jackets now turn their eyes to tomorrow, where they will try to solve Blake Wolters in his third stint of Single-A. Augusta sends Derek Vartanian to the mound, who was very good on the road two weeks ago.

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Carolina League Stories from April 21, 2026


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