Picard’s First-Career Quality Start Gives Fireflies 3-2 Win

Top Storylines

• Coleman Picard earned his first-career quality start as he kept Charleston off the board in his final five innings of work Friday. Picard closed the night with six innings pitched under his belt. He allowed two runs off four hits and a walk and he struck out a pair.

• The bullpen was flawless again Friday. Relievers covered three scoreless innings for Columbia. Across the last three games, the pen has given Columbia 15.1 innings and has only surrendered one run (0.59 ERA).

• Columbia wins their 40th one-run game of the season. The team is now 18-22 in single-run contests this year.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Coleman Picard recovered from a rough first inning by pitching five-straight scoreless innings to close out his first-career quality start in a Fireflies 3-2 win over the Charleston RiverDogs Friday night at Segra Park.

Picard worked six innings, allowed two runs on four hits and gathered a pair of strikeouts before passing the ball to the bullpen. Dalton Hill, Michael Braswell and Andy Basora all spun one scoreless inning in relief to close out the game for Columbia. Basora earned his team-leading eighth save of the year in the win. He left the game-tying run 90 feet away on a groundout to end the game.

After the win, the Fireflies are now 18-22 in one-run games.

Play-by-Play

Columbia tied the game in the bottom of the third inning. Jhosmmel Zue set the table with a lead-off single. With two outs, he stole second and then Henry Ramos drove him home with a line drive single up the middle. Ramos advanced to second on the play at the plate. Next, JC Vanek drove a single up the middle to bring Ramos around to tie the contest 2-2 before the end of the frame.

Columbia got the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth. Roni Cabrera and Connor Rasmussen drew back-to-back walks to kick-off the frame and then executed a double steal to move the go-ahead run to third. After that, Zue drove a sacrifice fly to the warning track in right to plate Cabrera and give the Fireflies their first lead of the game.

The RiverDogs got on the board first in the top of the first inning. With one out, Andreimi Antunez doubled to center and Cooper Flemming drew a walk to set the table for the heart of the order. Taitn Gray pulled a double down the right field line to plate Antunez and then Alberth Palma lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Flemming to push the RiverDogs to a 2-0 lead before Columbia came to the dish for the first time.

After giving up the two runs in the first inning, Coleman Picard locked down the Charleston RiverDogs. The righty earned his first quality start of his professional career with six innings of two-run baseball. He worked around four hits and a walk with two strikeouts to keep the RiverDogs at bay before handing the ball to the bullpen.

Dalton Hill was the first arm out of the pen. After issuing a lead-off walk, he cut down the RiverDogs in order to keep Columbia in front 3-2 heading into the eighth inning. Michael Braswell worked a scoreless eighth and walked the lead-off batter in the ninth before Andy Basora (S, 8) entered the game. Basora allowed one hit, but stranded the inherited runner to earn his eighth save of the year.

On the other side, Ethan Storm worked 4.2 innings out of the shoot for Charleston and allowed two runs as he received a no-decision. Brayden Jones was the first arm out of the pen and while he didn’t surrender a hit, the run he gave up after back-to-back walks to start the inning marked the difference in the game. Yereny Teus closed out the game for Charleston.

On-Deck

Columbia continues their series with the Charleston RiverDogs tomorrow night at Segra Park at 6:05 pm. RHP Jose Gutierrez (1-2, 3.52 ERA) takes the slab for Columbia and Charleston counters with RHP Aiden Cremarosa (4-2, 3.11 ERA).

Tomorrow is Harry Potter Night at Segra Park. The first 1,000 in attendance will receive a Mason wizard bobblehead and after the game, the Fireflies will host a Harry Potter-themed drone show. Reserve your seat now at FirefliesTickets.com.