Game 15 Recap: Fight Back

For the first time since Opening Night in Charleston, I made my way to see the Fireflies play as the visiting team by taking the drive to Greenville. I made the drive, could the Fireflies take the Drive?

The Greenville Drive get better attendance than the Fireflies. But that's largely because they have a season ticket base that the Fireflies haven't seem to gone after yet. There would be a good crowd for Thirsty Thursday, but mostly in the 500 Club down the RF line. I saw a couple Fireflies shirts there, and one family completely decked out in Mets attire that was also there to see the Fireflies, but more interested in their parent organization. The national anthem singers were a choir from Pelion High School in southern Lexington County, who agitated some of the home fans by cheering for their home metro area.

Both teams went down quickly in the first. That would not set the tone for the game however. In the top of the 2nd, David Thompson and Dash Winningham got started with hits followed by Jeff Diehl and Tyler Moore bringing them around for a 2-0 lead. That lead would not last at all as Josh Ockimey led the bottom half off with a home runs (considering he hit two home runs including the stadium's first last weekend, why were they not pitching more carefully?) and a throwing error by Milton Ramos who has been shaky of late tied it at 2-2 after 2. Then the Fireflies scored two more runs in the 3rd, capped by a David Thompson RBI (also surprised that the Drive gave Thompson anything to hit with a runner on third and first base open).But despite the Drive being unhappy with Joseph Monge being called out on attempting to advance on a potential wild pitch, Thomas McIlraith's lack of command led to Ockimey taking advantage with a RBI single. But again in the 3rd it was two more Firefly runs, this time on a home run by Ivan Wilson! Wilson is now tied for the all-time franchise lead in home runs with Thompson, Joe Tuschak, and J.C. Rodriguez with..... one. Unfortunately the Drive took advantage of McIlraith with yet another home run, this time by the Longwood Lancer Kyri Washington to make it 6-6 in the bottom of the 4th. McIlraith could not work himself out and Christian Montgomery had to take over.

The good news for the Fireflies? The Drive could not afford as much to take out struggling pitchers. Greenville the day before lost in 17 innings at Hickory where five different pitchers threw at least three innings. Greenville starter Daniel Gonzalez went five innings, even after the Fireflies retook the lead at 8-6 in the 5th off another double by a red hot Winningham. Montgomery stayed in and was showing the potential he had when he was picked by the Mets out of high school, throwing more strikes than usual with a good fastball. But the Fireflies couldn't hit reliever Austin Glorius initially as well as Gonzalez, and had to rely on Montgomery who overall hasn't been doing well. The bottom of the 7th inning started badly when Vinny Siena botched a routine ground ball. Montgomery then lost his confidence and got behind the next couple hitters, allowing a walk and single. And despite his recent hitting surge, Winningham couldn't keep it going in the field and threw a potential double play ball off the helmet of Ockimey and into left center allowing the Drive to tie it at 8-8. A Montgomery wild pitch gave Greenville a 9-8 lead, and after Montgomery came back to strikeout Luis Alexander Basabe, he was taken out for Alex Palsha. Palsha struck the next two out to get out of trouble, but the trouble had caused the Fireflies to fall behind with two innings left.

Glorius was able to keep it going through the 8th, while Palsha kept it a one run game going to the 9th. But the Fireflies had to score, and led off with Wilson who has been at times a liability at the plate. But he was on tonight and led off with a double to make it interesting. Tucker Tharp laid down a situational bunt, rare in the minors somewhat due to the games not counting as much as what individual players do. And Glorius gloriously threw the ball away, and Tharp made it to second with the game tied 9-9! (Note: this was scored officially as a hit and an error while in my scorebook I gave Tharp a SH rather than a single) Vinny Siena kept it going with a double to give the Fireflies the lead again and six total bases in five at-bats on the game. Joe Tuschak singled, bringing up Thompson with a chance to add to the lead. And Thompson delievered with a single, and Tuschak scored as well when Basabe threw the ball into the Firefly dugout trying to get Tuschak out at third. Then, and only then, was Glorius relieved in favor of Jake Cosart. We can thank the Hickory Crawdads for this win, as the Drive were hesitant to take out both Gonzalez and Glorius when they should have due to most of the bullpen being unavailable for this game.

The scoring was capped when Winningham got another RBI by driving in Thompson. The Fireflies took a 13-9 lead to the bottom of the 9th, which wasn't truly safe as Palsha already had one meltdown on the road in Charleston and the Drive were coming up with their big prospect trio in Michael Chavis, Ockimey, and Basabe. But aside from a walk to Ockimey, Palsha was able to get through and Siena redeemed his previous big error by making a nice play to get Basabe out to end the game. These Fireflies fought back well through a great team hitting effort. Siena, Thompson, Winningham, and Wilson combined for 14 hits and 23 total bases, an incredible total from a four man group. This team has times where they are a phenomenal and other times where they look substandard compared to college ball. The Fireflies are perhaps a classic minor league team.

So here is a look at the updated standings all-time of Firefly players, with lots of hitters adding to their totals:

Player	Position	TB	R	RBI	BB/HBP	SB	CS	0 for 1	SO	Outs	K	R	ER	H	BB/HBP	W	S	L	Score
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	11	2	2	17	2	2	0	0	232
David Thompson	3B	27	15	16	8	0	0	35	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	231
Joe Shaw	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	36	16	2	2	9	0	2	0	0	223
Vinny Siena	2B	23	14	6	15	0	0	30	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	189
Chase Ingram	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	48	20	6	5	17	3	1	0	1	171
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	10	3	3	7	6	0	1	0	127
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	8	1	1	3	5	0	1	0	119
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	15	6	5	6	6	1	1	1	117
Dash Winningham	1B	19	7	8	6	0	0	37	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	108
Joe Tuschak	LF	20	5	8	4	0	1	29	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	105
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	5	3	3	4	0	0	2	0	100
Ivan Wilson	CF	20	7	6	6	1	2	37	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	92
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	42	9	9	8	11	10	1	0	1	87
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	11	4	7	6	2	0	38	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	64
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	14	10	3	7	0	2	41	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	52
Nicco Blank	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	45
Tyler Badamo	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	33	5	7	7	16	0	1	0	1	45
Kevin Canelon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	13	5	5	10	6	0	0	1	41
Tucker Tharp	RF	9	3	1	1	0	0	13	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	35
Tyler Moore	C	8	6	2	3	0	1	24	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	31
Milton Ramos	SS	9	3	7	3	0	0	32	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	29
Natanael Ramos	C	4	1	1	2	0	0	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	26
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	10	9	6	6	7	0	0	0	24
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23	8	6	6	7	7	0	0	0	23
Jeff Diehl	DH	8	2	3	6	0	0	25	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21
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
Witt Haggard	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	3	3	3	0	0	2	-58