Fayetteville Falls on Rainy Wednesday Night in Columbia
COLUMBIA, SC – The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (25-28) were unable to even the series up Wednesday night at Segra Park after an 80-minute rain delay pushed back the start of the ballgame. Fayetteville fell to the Columbia Fireflies (26-25) 4-2 with the latter taking each of the first two contests of
COLUMBIA, SC – The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (25-28) were unable to even the series up Wednesday night at Segra Park after an 80-minute rain delay pushed back the start of the ballgame. Fayetteville fell to the Columbia Fireflies (26-25) 4-2 with the latter taking each of the first two contests of this week’s six-game set.
Columbia grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first inning against Woodpeckers starter Yeriel Santos (L, 2-3). A double steal resulted in Erick Torres dashing home, narrowly beating a tag placed by the debuting Victor Diaz for the game’s opening run. Moments later, Austin Charles singled in Derlin Figueroa to make it 2-0.
Fayetteville responded with their first run in the top of the second when a potential double play went awry for the Fireflies and Juan Santander came in on a wild throw to first. Columbia quickly cancelled out the run in the bottom half thanks to a Blake Mitchell fly ball that landed over the head of Kenni Gomez for an RBI double. Santos ended up tossing four innings, allowing three runs while striking out five.
The bullpen impressed for the Woodpeckers over the final four innings. Ben Petschke went two and two-thirds frames, surrendering just one unearned run. He handed the ball off to Abel Mercedes with two outs in the seventh and Mercedes struck out Charles before setting down the Fireflies in order in the eighth, adding two more strikeouts.
Fayetteville got back within a run in the fifth when Xavier Casserilla blooped a single into right center off Columbia’s Felix Arronde (W, 3-4) that scored Waner Luciano, but the Fireflies plated an insurance run in the sixth when a throw by Alberto Hernandez got away from Casserilla at first. The Woodpeckers threatened in the ninth when Gomez and Cesar Hernandez ended up in scoring position with one out, but reliever Conner Fenlong (SV, 3) struck out Luciano before getting Diaz to ground out to end the ballgame.
The two teams will meet again on Thursday night in Columbia with RHP Sandy Mejia expected to start for Fayetteville. The Fireflies will send LHP Hunter Patteson to the hill. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.