McDonagh Dominates in 7-4 Win

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ryan McDonagh dominated the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers as the Fireflies took home a 7-4 victory in their series opener Tuesday evening at Segra Park.

Ryan McDonagh (W, 2-2) was nearly perfect in his start for the Fireflies. The righty worked a career-best six innings around one hit, which came with two outs in the sixth frame. He matched a career mark with six strikeouts before handing the ball to the bullpen with a 6-0 lead.

Columbia piled it on early for the second-consecutive game. The Fireflies brought nine to the dish in the first inning to score four runs. After Henry Ramos drew a lead-off walk, Josh Hammond and Yandel Ricardo hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Then Jhosmmel Zue drew a walk to score Ramos and JC Vanek and Stone Russell had back-to-back RBI singles to give Columbia a 3-0 advantage. Connor Rasmussen closed the scoring in the frame with a sacrifice fly to left to score Zue to make it 4-0.

The bats weren’t finished there. In the second, Hammond drew a one-out walk before Yandel Ricardo tripled over the head of centerfielder Jaden Fauske. That plated Hammond and set up Sean Gamble. The lefty knocked a single to right to score Ricardo and push Columbia in front 6-0.

That was all she wrote for Cannon Ballers’ starter Gabriel Rodriguez (L, 2-2). The righty recorded five outs, but surrendered six earned runs off seven hits and three walks before he passed things off to the Kannapolis bullpen.

Henson Leal ran into some trouble in the seventh inning. He allowed four-consecutive Cannon Ballers to reach with one out and eventually Stiven Flores, Derek Cerda and Matthew Boughton came around to score before Leal was relieved with a pair of outs.

After that, Luis Valdez stranded the bases loaded and offered a scoreless eighth before Andy Basora closed out the game with a one-run ninth.

Columbia scored their final run in the eighth inning. Henry Ramos legged out an infield single before Yandel Ricardo brought him around with a two-out base knock to give Columbia a 7-3 lead heading into the ninth.

Ricardo finished the night 4-5 with a triple. He now has multiple hits in four consecutive games, which is tied with Hammond for the longest multi-hit streak for the Fireflies this season. Hammond’s streak is also active after he finished today 2-4 wtih a walk.

The Fireflies continue their series with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers tomorrow night at Segra Park at 7:05 pm. RHP Coleman Picard (1-1, 1.89 ERA) toes the rubber for Columbia and Kannapolis counters with RHP Truman Pauley (1-8, 5.65 ERA).

Columbia returns home July 21-26 to play the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at Segra Park. The club will host their first-ever True Crime Mystery Night Thursday, July 23, giveaway an ugly Christmas Sweater Jersey to the first 1,000 in attendance July 24 and host Dino Night presented by SC Department of Environmental Services July 25. Buy your tickets now at FirefliesTickets.com.