Renteria Sharp, Columbia Tramples Asheville in Opener

ASHEVILLE, NC - Columbia's offense backed up starter Marcel Renteria on Friday and the club cruised to a 6-3 victory over Asheville. Renteria logged six terrific shut-out innings and notched a season-high seven strikeouts. Offensively, the Fireflies tallied 15 hits, two shy of their season high.
Renteria (W, 3-1) posted perhaps his gutsiest performance of the year. The righty did not allow a run and scattered four hits. Four times on Friday the 23-year-old stranded runners on base. He finished with a flurry, retiring eight straight batters before he was removed after the sixth.
The offense did the rest. Every batter recorded at least one hit on Friday and Matt Winaker led the way. The outfielder became the third Firefly this season (Dionis Paulino , Scott Manea ) to notch a four-hit game. Winaker finished an impressive 4-for-5 at the dish with a double and two RBIs.
Zach Rheams participated in the hit parade and slugged three hits (his second three-hit game of the season). Later on, Hansel Moreno whacked his fourth home run of the year over the right-field wall.
Reliever Carlos Hernandez wound up stranding the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the win. Columbia (17-22, 51-55) has won back-to-back games and aims for a three - or four - game win streak on Saturday when it battles Asheville (19-20, 46-62) in a doubleheader.
SCORING SUMMARY
TOP 1 - Matt Winaker doubles in Edgardo Fermin . COL 1, ASH 0
TOP 3 - Scott Manea plates a run with a double … Zach Rheams singles in Manea. COL 3, ASH 0
TOP 4 - Winaker drives in another run, his single scores Hansel Moreno. COL 4, ASH 0
TOP 5 - Jose Brizuela's double plates Rheams. COL 5, ASH 0
BOTTOM 7 - Matt Hearn and Ryan Vilade each score a run with singles. COL 5, ASH 2
TOP 8 - Hansel Moreno blasts his fourth homer of the year. COL 6, ASH 2
Columbia and Asheville are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 5:05 ET. Game two will begin approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. Here is the probable pitching matchup for the doubleheader:
Game 1 - RHP Luc Rennie (2-0, 0.65) vs. LHP Lucas Gilbreath (4-8, 5.49)
Game 2 - RHP Chris Viall (3-6, 4.84) vs. RHP Will Gaddis (4-5, 5.08)
You can listen to the action on FOX Sports Radio 1400 AM, ColumbiaFireflies.com and the iHeartRadio Radio app starting at 4:45 p.m.