Russell's Career Night Powers Columbia to 11-2 Win
Published on August 26, 2025 under Carolina League (CarL)
Columbia Fireflies News Release
Stone Russell of the Columbia Fireflies
(Columbia Fireflies)
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Stone Russell collected a career-best six RBI to power the Fireflies to an 11-2 win in their opener against the Hickory Crawdads Tuesday night at Segra Park.
The Fireflies bats exploded behind a career night for Stone Russell. Jose Cerice was hit by a pitch and then scored off a single from Connor Rasmussen and a two base fielding error in center field. After that, Russell drove his fourth homer of the season over the left field wall to give Columbia a 3-1 lead.
In the third, Hyungchan Um got the party started with a double to bring around Cerice. Later Russell lined a single up the middle to score Um and Rasmussen which put Columbia on top 6-2.
The next inning, 10 Fireflies came up to the dish. The team drew four free passes to score four runs. Jose Cerice pummeled an RBI single to right to plate Tyriq Kemp and give Columbia a 7-2 lead. A wild pitch brought home Luke Nowak to increase Columbia's advantage to 8-2. Then Russell came to the dish again and drilled a two RBI knock to left to make it a 10-2 game.
Russell ended the night 3-5 with a career-best six RBI. It was Columbia's third six RBI performance of the year. He joined Ramon Ramirez and Derlin Figueroa who both utilized the help of a grand slam to earn their six RBI contests.
Cerice scored three runs for Columbia in a 2-3 day with a walk and a hit by pitch and Kemp and Um also had multi-hit games as the Fireflies lineup produced four multi-hit games on the night.
Hickory got on the board first in the second. Marcos Torres clubbed a solo homer to break the scoreless tie. The homer broke a 27.1 inning stretch where Fireflies starter David Shields didn't surrender an earned run. The longest stretch in Fireflies history belonged to Ryan Ramsey who threw 30.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run from June 24-August 3, 2023.
Shields left the game after working four innings with five strikeouts. The five whiffs gave him 77 on the season, which matches Yunior Marte's 77 for the most for a Fireflies pitcher this year.
After Shields, the bullpen was lights out. Yimi Presinal (W, 2-1) worked two scoreless innings out of the shoot. After that, Nick Conte went two hitless innings before Augusto Mendieta set the Crawdads down 1-2-3 in the ninth.
It was a rough start for Enrique Segura (L, 1-4), who allowed eight runs in 3.1 innings. After that, Maikel Reyes allowed a pair of runs in 0.2 innings before the Hickory pen closed out the game with four one-run innings.
The Fireflies continue their series with the Crawdads tomorrow night at Segra Park at 7:05 pm. RHP Kendry Chourio (1-2, 4.02 ERA) takes the bump for Columbia and Hickory counters with RHP Evan Siary (0-0, 6.00 ERA).
Tomorrow is a Dog Days of Summer presented by CVETs at Segra Park. Fans can bring their dog with them to the game. Even better news, with the purchase of a lawn ticket for a human, the dog gets in for free! Buy your tickets now at FirefliesTickets.com.
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 Stone Russell of the Columbia Fireflies |
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