Game 3 Recap: A night of great firsts!

Like the previous night, I did not attend this game. I instead went to fellow South Atlantic League member Augusta where I saw a college game, where Augusta beat USC Aiken 16-8 in a big D2 matchup. Once Spirit Communications Park gets going, hopefully some big college games will be played here in addition to Carolina Stadium.

And I really missed something not going to Joe Riley Park. I said at the end of the last recap we needed to get our first win and our first home run. And that first home run ended up being by David Thompson, who Thursday was the first Firefly batter to get a hit. 3 runs scored on Thompson's first inning home run, which put the Fireflies well on the path to victory.

With the bullpen likely to remain an issue, it was important for the Fireflies to keep supporting starter Thomas McIlraith. And they would do so with five runs between the fifth and seventh innings. With McIlraith going strong, the Fireflies had the win never in doubt, which is what you need to do on the road.

McIlraith finished with 6 strikeouts in 6 innings. While he pitched, he also walked two while the Fireflies made one error. That was all the offense the RiverDogs had, as relievers Alex Palsha and Johnny Magliozzi would strike out five of the six batters they faced as well. Considering that Palsha and Magliozzi were the goats of the epic meltdown two days earlier on Opening Day, it is really great that they could redeem themselves. Obviously with a big lead there was less pressure, but hopefully that got their confidence level back up and they can now excel from here on out. In the end, the Fireflies got their first ever win convincingly by a final score of 9-0!

And McIlraith, Palsha, and Magliozzi combined for the first ever Firefly no-hitter! That's right, something the San Diego Padres have never done in 47 years of baseball it only took the Fireflies three games to do! Now MLB does not really honor combined no-hitters. But the odds of seeing a one-man no-no in Class A is really low with strict pitch counts. You'll even see managers occasionally take out pitchers who have a perfect game going, unheard of in MLB or college ball. So as pitching performances go, this could be as good as gets for the Fireflies.

So now here is the updated list of all-time Fireflies. McIlraith is now the greatest Firefly of all-time!

Player	Position	TB	R	RBI	BB/HBP	SB	CS	0 for 1	SO	Outs	K	R	ER	H	BB/HBP	W	S	L	Score
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	6	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	132
David Thompson	3B	8	2	5	3	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	70
Chase Ingram	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	7	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	68
Vinny Siena	2B	4	4	1	4	0	0	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	45
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	0	1	1	4	2	0	0	0	34
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	33
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	5	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	32
Dash Winningham	1B	3	4	0	2	0	0	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24
Jeff Diehl	DH	2	1	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18
Milton Ramos	SS	3	0	4	0	0	0	9	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	3	1	1	1	4	0	0	0	12
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	2	1	1	1	0	0	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	4	3	0	0	0	0	10	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11
Vicente Lupo	LF	2	1	1	1	0	0	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Joe Tuschak	LF	1	0	1	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Tyler Moore	C	1	1	1	1	0	0	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Jose Garcia	C	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	5	4	3	1	4	0	0	1	-7
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	2	2	3	0	0	0	-13
Ivan Wilson	CF	3	0	0	1	0	2	12	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-21
Witt Haggard	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	1	-30