Fireflies Bats Outslug the Tourists Again

COLUMBIA- The Asheville Tourists dropped a critical contest to the Columbia Fireflies 7-5 on Friday night. For the second consecutive game, Columbia's Scott Manea homered and led an offensive attack that featured 12 more hits. Asheville's pitching staff has allowed 24 runs and 39 hits over their last 25 innings pitched.
Manea finished with two runs scored and four RBI. The Fireflies catcher scored twice and drove in three on Thursday night. Manea also threw out two Tourists runners on the base paths.

Asheville's baserunning in 2018 has been a nightmare to put it kindly. They have been caught stealing 80 times this year--the most in the league by far. The Tourists were tagged out on the base-paths four more times tonight. A pair of caught stealing attempts, one pick-off, and one out trying to stretch a single into a double. Despite the gifted outs, Asheville's offense still mustered five runs on ten hits.
Nic Motley hit a third inning Home Run and Matt McLaughlin clubbed an RBI double in the fourth to tie the score 3-3. Columbia plated the game's next four runs and Asheville was only able to complete half of the comeback with a two spot in the seventh.
Moises Ceja was a bright spot out of Asheville's bullpen with three shutout innings. Matt Hearn also finished with a pair of hits from the leadoff spot.
The loss puts Asheville four games out of a playoff spot with only ten left to play. The Tourists will attempt to earn their first win of this road trip on Saturday night with another date against the Fireflies. Saturday's game will begin at 6:05pm.