Greenville Edges Columbia in Slugfest on Sunday

COLUMBIA, SC - The Fireflies couldn't match the Drive's power on Sunday afternoon, falling at Spirit Communications Park, 11-5.

The four-game series with Greenville produced 11 combined home runs between the teams. The visitors socked nine total, and four on Sunday.

Mitch Gunsolus launched the first two off of Tyler Badamo (L, 1-1) in the first and third innings. The Drive added one more run in each of those frames to go up 4-0.

Columbia (5-6) used a power surge of its own in the bottom of the third inning. With two down and no one on base, the switch hitter J.C. Rodriguez - batting from the left side - vaulted a solo slam over the right-field wall to get the home team on the board.

Greenville (7-4) not only answered in the fourth, but padded its lead with two more runs. Chad de la Guerra drove home Kyri Washington and even Gunsolus' groundout plated base-runner Jeremy Rivera. The Fireflies were in a 6-1 hole.

Later in the bottom of the fourth, Ivan Wilson laced a one-out base hit and moved into scoring position when Natanael Ramos singled. Milton Ramos (no relation) drove in Wilson to cut the deficit to four.

The seventh inning turned into a promising one for Columbia. David Thompson doubled down the left-field line off of Austin Glorious (W, 1-0) with one out, and later came around to score thanks to Joe Tuschak's base knock into the outfield. Thompson's hit streak continues - he's the only player in the South Atlantic League to hit safely in all 11 games this year. Tuschak has taken the lead of his teammate, now hitting safely in five straight.

The Fireflies plated two more runs in the eighth but couldn't keep pace with the five Greenville runs that came around to score in the eighth and ninth frames.

Columbia begins a three-game series with the Charleston RiverDogs on Monday night at Spirit Communications Park starting at 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Joe Shaw (1-0, 3.00) toes the rubber for the Fireflies and faces righty Anyelo Gomez (0-0, 5.40) for the RiverDogs.

You can listen to the action on WGCV 620 AM and 105.1 FM, ColumbiaFireflies.com and the TuneIn Radio app starting at 7:00 p.m.