Fireflies drop series-finale against Greenville

GREENVILLE, SC (WOLO) – The Columbia Fireflies dropped the series-finale with the Greenville Drive, 10-0 Thursday.

The home team won two of the three games in the series. The three-game set featured plenty of offense: 52 runs and 64 total hits combined.

Greenville (72-57) plated five runs in the opening inning and four more in the second. In the first, Roldani Baldwin and Ryan Scott bashed base hits that each brought in a run. Later in the inning, Jerry Downs pulled a three-run home run just inside the right-field foul pole. It was 5-0 Drive.

After Brett Netzer brought in a run with a single in the second, Bobby Dalbec also went yard. His three-run blast was a towering pop up that just cleared the 30-foot left-field wall. For the second straight night, Columbia (65-63) trailed 9-0 after two frames.

The only other run came in the bottom of the fifth. Carlos Tovar started the inning with a single and scored on Dalbec’s double into the left-center field alley.

Justin Brantley (L, 2-2) took the loss, but wound up fanning a new career-high nine batters. Columbia was flummoxed by Bryan Mata (W, 4-6) all night. The right-hander earned the victory for Greenville.

One bright spot on Thursday was Cam Griffin out of the Fireflies bullpen. The reliever posted two scoreless frames and struck out three.

Columbia opens a series at L.P. Frans Stadium against the Hickory Crawdads on Friday. Right-hander Darwin Ramos (1-2, 5.20) makes his fourth start as a Firefly and faces Crawdads righty Edgar Arredondo (6-5, 3.83).

You can listen to the action on ESPN Columbia 94.9 FM and 1230 AM, ColumbiaFireflies.com and the TuneIn Radio app starting at 6:45 p.m.