Game 12 Recap: Dog Pounding

After sitting in the 3rd base reserved seating Sunday, I moved over to the first base reserved seating for this Monday night game. It was pretty pleasant once the sun went down. I wasn't sure when I looked at tickets online that I would get a seat in Section 111, but I did. Most people in my section were from the South Carolina Autism Academy. I have worked for a similar group, so I have sympathy for what they do. A few families had problems controlling their own non-autistic children however, but they mostly didn't stay long. Overall, there wasn't many people there. The official attendance which was probably inflated was just over 2600. That's not bad at most parks for a Monday. It ranks higher than the average attendance at Hagerstown, Savannah (from whom we got our team), Kannapolis, and Hickory last year, and just barely below the averages of Augusta, Rome, and Asheville. I'm sure 2600 is better than most other SAL stadiums as well on a Monday. But it's still the team's 5th ever home game. Considering what the Knights have done since moving to uptown Charlotte, probably need to be doing better.

Joe Shaw started the game okay, though certain RiverDog hitters seemed to hit him hard. A caught stealing in the 3rd and a double play in the 4th helped Shaw get through without allowing any runs. Shaw seemed to get better as the game got along, and it was sad to see him go after the 6th inning due to pitch count. I think he will need to cut back on the 4.15 pitches per batter faced he had this game, but overall he's off to a solid start this season.

The Fireflies got by on offense by taking advantage of walks, something they did not do the previous day against the Greenville Drive. Vinny Siena stayed hot by driving Kevin Kaczmarski in off a double in the 1st. David Thompson added to his SAL leading RBI total with sac fly in the 3rd, followed by a RBI single by Dash Winningham to make it 3-0 Fireflies after 3. Charleston starter Anyelo Gomez did not last long with 3 walks early, and Daris Vargas also had control issues that led to the Fireflies leading 5-0 after 6.

Seth Davis took over for Shaw in the 7th, and it looked like the Fireflies might be in trouble as Davis looked pretty bad to start. Trey Amburgey got his third hit of the game and second double, then went to third on a wild pitch. Chris Gittens then drove him in for the first RiverDog run on an infield single where Gittens appeared to be out. But it evened out as Jhalan Jackson hit into a DP, and Davis was able to do well enough after that.

From there on, it was all Fireflies. While this had no impact as the Fireflies didn't score in the 7th, Gittens hilariously dropped a foul popup off his face, and needed the trainer to tape his nose back up. I guess that was the result of me having watched the Scott Sterling soccer/volleyball sketches on YouTube earlier in the day. The 8th inning is where things got good. Some drunk hecklers were calling out RiverDog reliever David Palladino, just using his jersey number in 40. These guys were annoying, but they made up for the crowd our Fireflies had to endure on Opening Night in Charleston. Palladino seemed to succumb to their pressure, allowing the first five guys on before Claudio Custodio, known to the hecklers just as "5", came in. Custodio didn't do much better, although officially he allowed no earned runs. It was nice to see the Firefly guys padding their stats, particularly J.C. Rodriguez with a 2-run double and Milton Ramos with a 2-run triple. The Pink song "Just Like Fire" that plays every time the Fireflies score seemed to get that much more catchy and exciting with every run. Eventually the Fireflies scored 8 in the 8th to win 13-1. With the Fireflies' bullpen being what it is, you just need to keep scoring. Hopefully that will help everybody's confidence and develop into potential future Mets (at least St. Lucie Mets anyway).

The "Terminix Pest Player of the Game" was announced in the 8th inning as being Joe Shaw. I thought it was a bit premature for that, and lots of Fireflies added good stats after that announcement. But Shaw is in fact now according to our standings the greatest Firefly of all-time now!

Player	Position	TB	R	RBI	BB/HBP	SB	CS	0 for 1	SO	Outs	K	R	ER	H	BB/HBP	W	S	L	Score
Joe Shaw	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	36	16	2	2	9	0	2	0	0	223
David Thompson	3B	22	9	13	7	0	0	28	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	175
Chase Ingram	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	15	2	2	9	2	1	0	0	154
Vinny Siena	2B	17	11	4	12	0	0	24	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	139
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	32	8	3	3	2	7	1	0	1	138
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	10	3	3	7	6	0	1	0	127
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	32	5	2	2	12	2	1	0	0	119
Joe Tuschak	LF	17	3	7	4	0	1	22	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	92
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	5	3	3	4	0	0	2	0	85
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	5	1	1	3	4	0	1	0	83
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	11	4	6	6	2	0	30	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	76
Tyler Badamo	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	33	5	7	7	16	0	1	0	1	45
Dash Winningham	1B	10	6	4	4	0	0	32	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	43
Ivan Wilson	CF	12	4	4	5	1	2	30	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	42
Kevin Canelon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	13	5	5	10	6	0	0	1	41
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	17	10	6	5	5	5	0	1	1	40
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	17	7	3	3	4	6	0	0	0	38
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	10	7	3	7	0	2	32	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	38
Milton Ramos	SS	8	3	7	3	0	0	26	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	37
Tyler Moore	C	7	5	1	3	0	1	18	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30
Nicco Blank	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	27
Tucker Tharp	RF	6	2	1	1	0	0	9	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23
Natanael Ramos	C	2	1	0	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12
Vicente Lupo	LF	2	1	1	1	0	0	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Jose Garcia	C	3	1	1	2	0	0	10	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Jeff Diehl	DH	4	2	1	6	0	0	20	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	5	6	5	5	6	0	0	0	-18
Witt Haggard	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	3	3	3	0	0	2	-58