Game 7 Recap: Finishing the Job

After a horrible start in Charleston, the Fireflies with a DH sweep in Rome had a chance to go home with a winning record. Could the Fireflies do that in front of mostly schoolkids at 10:30 in the morning?

The Fireflies were back at the top of the rotation, with Chase Ingram making his franchise-leading second ever start. Ingram was not dominant, but held Rome in check until David Thompson could do his thing and drive in Milton Ramos to put the Fireflies ahead 1-0 in the 3rd. Rome though continued to chip away at Ingram, who was not as solid as he was on Opening Day in Charleston. Runs in the 4th and 5th put the R-Braves ahead 2-1 after 5. But Dash Winningham was able to get his first RBI in Class A by driving in Thompson, and then was driven in by Joe Tuschak. But Ingram kept his pitch count down enough this time to go 6 innings. The Fireflies needed just three innings of relief this time.

The Fireflies in the 7th went with Craig Missigman, who had not pitched since an erratic outing on Opening Day in Charleston. Missigman still threw 8 of his 17 pitches for balls, but was efficient at getting strike three twice and not letting anybody on this time. The Fireflies weren't able to add anything else off of Rome pitcher Dalton Geekie (our fans should have fun was his name when the teams meet in Columbia). Alex Palsha came in for this third outing in the 8th and 9th innings. Palsha crumbled under pressure against Charleston Opening Day pretty bad before having it easy in a blowout win on Saturday. But with just a one run lead, Palsha was able to deliver his first save of the year getting six of 8 batters out and not walking anybody this time. Hopefully Palsha has his control back and will perform well for the Columbia crowd this week.

The lesson that seems to have come from opening the week on the road is that it's not how you start, it's how you finish. You don't want to fall behind 10-0 like I saw Presbyterian do against Furman yesterday, but if it's close you can't afford bad bullpen pitching like the Fireflies had in Charleston. Hopefully we'll see more like what we had in Rome this coming week in Columbia.

And that concludes the 7 game road stand. Spirit Communications Park opens tonight! The Fireflies have arrived, and we need to see big crowds all weekend. I'll preview the Greenville Drive later today. Here is what our all-time Firefly player standings look like now going into our first home stand ever:

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	30	15	2	2	9	2	1	0	0	154
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	6	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	132
David Thompson	3B	15	5	8	5	0	0	15	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	120
Joe Shaw	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	8	2	2	5	0	1	0	0	99
Tyler Badamo	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	2	1	1	5	0	1	0	0	91
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	77
Vinny Siena	2B	10	6	1	7	0	0	12	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	77
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	72
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	9	4	3	3	4	0	1	1	55
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	6	2	2	2	3	0	0	0	54
Joe Tuschak	LF	7	2	3	2	0	1	12	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	36
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	0	1	1	4	2	0	0	0	34
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	1	1	1	4	0	0	0	33
Kevin Canelon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	6	2	2	5	2	0	0	0	27
Dash Winningham	1B	5	6	1	3	0	0	20	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	26
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	6	4	2	4	0	1	19	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23
Milton Ramos	SS	4	2	4	1	0	0	13	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	3	1	1	4	1	0	16	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
Jeff Diehl	DH	2	2	1	3	0	0	12	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Tyler Moore	C	2	2	1	2	0	1	11	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Jose Garcia	C	2	0	0	2	0	0	8	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-5
Ivan Wilson	CF	6	0	3	2	0	2	21	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-9
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	2	2	3	0	0	0	-13
Witt Haggard	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	3	3	3	0	0	2	-58