Game 19 Recap: Getting Better With Time

The Fireflies after a rough start (sans a sweep in Rome) have started to improve as of late, particularly in hitting the ball harder. After their first scheduled day off, it was time to come home for the second homestand. This time the Fireflies would play an unfamiliar opponent in the Lexington Legends. It was a battle of two SEC cities in MiLB, plus the Class A affiliates of last year's World Series teams.

I came out to this game, which I probably won't do all the time now until college season ends. I drove straight to the stadium rather than eating at a restaurant due to Altec utility workers deciding they had to close US-378 over US-601 for some reason. Also, it took about five minutes to buy a single ticket with nobody in front of me for some reason as well. Other than that, things went fine.

As I said yesterday during the series preview, the Lexington Legends have a very young team, relying on either high schoolers or marginal college prospects. They looked early like they might have a shot against Chase Ingram, who was struggling with his control early. But Ingram mostly worked his way out and avoided trouble. After 2015 first round pick Nolan Watson got the first four Fireflies out, the Fireflies had no trouble beating him up. A two out HR by J.C. Rodriguez in the 2nd set the stage for more Firefly power the following inning as Ivan Wilson and Tucker Tharp started up the 3rd with home runs as well. By 10 batters into the 2nd homestand the Fireflies had more homers than in the first homestand! Vinny Siena followed by getting on base as he has every game, this time with a hit-by-pitch. From there sloppiness took over Watson and the Legends and the Fireflies led 6-0 after 3 and continued to pull away from there. The Legends tried to bring Watson back out for the 4th, but the 19 year old may have been rushed into Class A too quickly. By comparison, no Mets' high school picks from last year have made it to Columbia yet. Everything that could go the Fireflies' way did, and they ended up with 13 runs on the game!

That allowed Chase Ingram to concentrate on making good pitches, and he mostly did aside from a HR in the 4th and some wildness that led to a run in his last inning in the 6th. The lack of pressure also allowed Christian Montgomery and Alex Palsha to get their ERAs back under control. Overall, it was a good 13-2 win for the Fireflies. Experience does not always make for better prospects, but it helped the Fireflies this night as they get better.

Below are the player standings again. Ingram is once again the top Firefly, but Thompson (who drove in or scored 5 runs this game), Conlon, and Siena all have the potential with a good game tonight to pass him again.

Player	Position	TB	R	RBI	BB/HBP	SB	CS	0 for 1	SO	Outs	K	R	ER	H	BB/HBP	W	S	L	Score
Chase Ingram	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	66	28	8	6	21	5	2	0	1	279
David Thompson	3B	33	17	21	9	0	0	48	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	269
Vinny Siena	2B	28	18	8	19	1	0	38	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	245
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	50	11	2	2	17	2	2	0	0	232
Joe Shaw	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	48	21	5	5	16	3	2	0	1	209
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	37	12	3	3	7	7	1	1	0	195
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	10	1	1	4	5	0	2	0	165
Ivan Wilson	CF	28	11	7	6	2	2	44	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	152
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	28	18	6	5	6	6	1	1	1	141
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	6	4	4	8	1	1	2	0	130
Dash Winningham	1B	23	8	8	8	0	0	44	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	125
Jeff Diehl	DH	18	7	8	10	0	0	35	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	109
Kevin Canelon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	45	19	7	7	14	7	0	0	1	106
Tucker Tharp	RF	18	7	4	1	2	1	23	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	106
Joe Tuschak	LF	22	6	9	4	0	1	40	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	101
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	42	9	9	8	11	10	1	0	1	87
Tyler Badamo	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	53	10	10	10	23	3	1	0	1	86
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	16	5	9	7	2	0	48	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	83
Nicco Blank	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	4	1	1	2	2	0	0	0	66
Milton Ramos	SS	13	5	8	5	0	0	38	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	56
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	14	10	3	7	0	2	41	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	52
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	12	9	6	8	7	0	0	0	50
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	31	13	8	8	10	9	0	0	0	37
Vicente Lupo	LF	5	3	2	2	0	0	11	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	26
Natanael Ramos	C	4	1	1	2	0	0	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13
Tyler Moore	C	8	6	2	3	0	1	34	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
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