Charles Homers Twice as Columbia Claws Past RiverDogs 4-2 on Friday Night

The Columbia Fireflies received a pair of solo home runs from Austin Charles to take down the Charleston RiverDogs by a 4-2 margin on Friday night at Segra Park in Columbia. The RiverDogs have been held to three runs or fewer in four of the five games in the series.

Owen Wild stranded baserunners in each of the first two innings but ran into some trouble with two outs in the Columbia (19-16) third. He walked Blake Mitchell to keep the inning alive after quickly dispatching the first two hitters. Derlin Figueroa followed with a triple to the right field corner that scored Mitchell, who knocked the ball out of Raudelis Martinez’s mitt on a close play at the plate.

Charles, the Fireflies shortstop, connected on his first home run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. He lined a fastball from Dalton Fowler over the wall in left center for his fourth round-tripper of the season as the lead doubled to 2-0.

The RiverDogs (15-21) used a big swing from Woo Shin to pull even in the seventh. Blake Robertson worked a leadoff walk against reliever Luis Polanco after the team mustered just two hits in the first six frames. Shin clobbered a two-strike breaking ball over the left field wall and into the bleachers to even the score. It was his second of the season.

The stalemate did not last for long. Brennon McNair opened the bottom of the frame with a double down the left field line. Two batters later, Mitchell laced a double to center field and Columbia was back in front 3-2. Charles added another solo blast in the eighth for good measure, becoming the first opposing player to hit two home runs in a game this season against the RiverDogs pitching staff.

Columbia pounded out 13 hits, receiving at least one from eight of the nine players in the lineup. Erick Torres, Figueroa, Charles, Jhonny Perdomo and McNair all finished with two hits. The RiverDogs closed the night with six hits, two from Narciso Polanco.

Wild turned in another solid start, limiting Columbia to one run on seven hits over 5.0 innings. He struck out six. Fowler surrendered one run in his inning on the bump. Samuel Mejia took the loss after surrendering two runs in 2.0 innings as the last man out of the pen.

The RiverDogs will attempt to pull even in the series once again on Saturday night. LHP Drew Dowd (0-1, 3.46) will take the mound first for the Dogs. RHP Felix Arronde (2-3, 3.25) will oppose him on the hill for the Fireflies. First pitch is at 6:05 p.m.