Molina Doubles Twice in Series Opener

NORTH AUGUSTA, SC - Friday night at SRP Park was another productive one for Gerson Molina . Columbia's centerfielder doubled twice in North Augusta, South Carolina, giving him hits in five of his last six games. The Fireflies dropped the opener to Augusta, though, 7-3.
Molina has been consistent all month and has logged a .297 batting average in August (22 games). That's the best mark on the team. Molina has been particularly good of late, hitting .355 over his last nine games.
Molina's team fell behind, 6-0, after the first two innings on Friday. Columbia (28-39, 52-81) answered with runs in the third, fourth and seventh frames, but ultimately, could not score enough to overcome the deficit. The GreenJackets simply had too many men on base. The home team tallied nine hits, five walks and one batter was hit.
Augusta (38-29, 74-61) remains one game ahead of Asheville for the Southern Division lead with three games left. Columbia has a chance to destroy the GreenJackets' playoff hopes the remainder of the weekend with a few wins.
Molina wasn't the only Fireflies hitter with a pair of hits on Friday. Guillermo Granadillo and Nick Conti each finished 2-for-4 at the plate with doubles.
On the slope, Nick MacDonald - in his Fireflies debut - and Jose Moreno each hurled two scoreless innings.
SCORING SUMMARY
Bottom 1: Sean Roby drives in a run with an RBI single … Franklin Labour does the same … Andres Angulo plates Roby with a double … Labour scores from third on a wild pitch. AUG 4, COL 0
Bottom 2: Frankie Tostado's ground out brings in a run … Roby doubles, scores Simon Whiteman. AUG 6, COL 0
Top 3: With the bases loaded, Mark Vientos knocks in Guillermo Granadillo from third with a sacrifice fly to center field. AUG 6, COL 1
Bottom 3: Andres Angulo grounds out 6-4, but plates Franklin Labour from third. AUG 7, COL 1
Top 4: Granadillo rips a double down the right-field line, scores Gerson Molina. AUG 7, COL 2
Top 7: With runners at the corners, Hayden Senger bounces a grounder to first, Jacob Gonzalez commits a throwing error and Nick Conti scores from third. AUG 7, COL3
Columbia and Augusta meet again on Saturday evening at 6:05 ET. The probable starters are righty Jose Butto (4-9, 3.52) for the Fireflies and right-hander Kai-Wei Teng (2-0, 1.23) for the GreenJackets. Tune into the action at FirefliesLiveStream.com.