Fireflies Fall to West Virginia Power Saturday

CHARLESTON, WV (Fireflies) — Columbia lost a lopsided game to the West Virginia Power, 12-2, on Saturday night at Appalachian Power Park. The bright spot was Tyler Bashlor’s two scoreless innings of work out of the bullpen. The righty missed the last two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery but has a miniscule 1.19 ERA in 22.2  innings pitched in 2016. He’s struck out 27 batters as well.

West Virginia (25-23) scored runs in the first five innings of Saturday’s game. Chase Ingram (L, 3-4) went just four innings, and the Power did most of its damage in the fifth frame after the righty was lifted. Daniel Arribas opened the inning with a homer, and seven more hitters reached base safely. When it was all said and done, six runs came across the plate to give the home team a 12-1 lead.

Columbia (25-24) notched its first run off of J.T. Brubaker (W, 3-5) in the fourth. Milton Ramos reached on a throwing error by shortstop Alfredo Reyes and scored when Jeff Diehl tripled.

The visitors added one more score in the seventh. Joe Tuschak doubled home Tyler Moore after the catcher began the inning with a walk.

The Fireflies can split the four-game series with a win over West Virginia on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. Columbia leans on ace P.J. Conlon (7-0, 1.06) to square off against Power righty Bret Helton (1-4, 4.73).

You can listen to the action on WGCV 620 AM, 105.1 and 96.3 FM, ColumbiaFireflies.com and the TuneIn Radio app starting at 1:45 p.m.