Recap Game 1: Fireflies Burn Up in Ninth

It was a great day for Columbia baseball history. We've had successful college teams and summer collegiate baseball team in the city, but have gone 12 years without pro baseball. So I went to the Fireflies opener in Charleston last night. Sadly, aside from me and one group of fans down the 3rd base line and some local media people, it was mostly RiverDog fans. And mostly drunk and obnoxious RiverDog fans too, as it was Thirsty Thursday and fireworks night. The one goal for our Fireflies on this opening night: shut those fans up!

The game started 30 minutes late, as I had been warned about in the closing announcement made by Chatrleston PA announcer Ken Carrington when I saw the RiverDogs lose 2-0 to the higher Class A Myrtle Beach Pelicans the night before. I got my ticket at the ticket office that night as well for the Firefly opener, unfortunately 3rd base box seats were sold out so I had to settle for two rows behind the opponent's (and home team's) dugout.

The first inning the Fireflies struggled, as Ivan Wilson flied out to center to start the Firefly franchise history and Chase Ingram had to work out of a jam in the bottom of the 1st. But in the second inning David Thompson got the first every Columbia Firefly hit, and Ingram settled in and was very effective. Ingram settled in and used a deceptive breaking ball to get the RiverDogs to miss and was in control. And in the 4th inning, Vinny Siena scored the first ever Firefly run on a wild pitch, followed by Tyler Moore driving in Dash Winningham for the first ever Firefly RBI. The Fireflies had finally cracked through on a RiverDog pitcher who had a great fastball.

But Ingram had to use a lot of pitches on each batter, and had 70 pitches after 4 innings. That chased Chase out as minor league pitchers early in the season are on strict pitch counts after the Mets ruined the arms of their pitching prospects back in the 1990s. In came Craig Missigman, who was very erratic with his control and walked in a run in the 5th. But Milton Ramos' 2nd RBI single of the game put the Fireflies lead back up to 4-1 in the 6th inning. That would be the score until the 9th inning.

In between, the Fireflies put in reliever Seth Davis, a former D3 pitcher. I would've felt better with closer and a solid mid-major guy in Alex Palsha, but Davis got the job done to allow Palsha to have a save opportunity in the 9th. Meanwhile, the RiverDogs put in James Reeves, who has pitched at Joe Riley Park for some time with the Citadel. Reeves was much more comfortable in there and dominated the Firefly hitters late.

Then Palsha got his opportunity. The first RiverDog in Kyle Holder hit the first pitch for a line drive, but it was right at Vicente Lupo for out #1. The Fireflies had only 2 more to go, and had a 98.7% chance of getting their first ever win. Then Palsha, who had a sub-one ERA for Short Season Brooklyn last year, fell apart. He could throw strikes, but not consistently and not when he had to which was the big difference between him and Ingram. Perhaps Palsha should have remembered his lead and tried to get ground balls that his guys could field. But this is Minor League Baseball, and the scouts watching probably would have thought more positively of the fielders for that instead of Palsha. So Palsha tried to be the hero and pitch around for strikeouts. And he failed badly at that. Palsha gave up two walks, then a single followed by a strikeout and then two more walks. The Fireflies had to take out their closer, and give them credit for that as they put in Johnny Magliozzi.

But Magliozzi fell behind RiverDog cleanup hitter Chris Gittens 3-1. The next pitch was a strike, and then the unthinkable happened:

Hoy Un Park (who the drunks kept chanting for the whole game) jumped well of second. I don't know if this was a designed play, or if Park thought Magliozzi started his motion and was running on full count with two out.  But Magliozzi tried to chase down Park in a rundown, then realized what I had thought: Eduardo Navas probably would go home from third on the play, and he got there before Park was out the game would go to extra innings. Magliozzi then mimicked the Northern Iowa basketball team by turning and making a panic throw to the plate, which sailed over catcher Tyler Moore's head and allowed Navas and Park to both score, ending the game and making the drunk home fans very happy with a 5-4 Charleston RiverDog win.

The Fireflies were so close to getting a huge first win in franchise opening history. But hard to say it any other way, and as bad as it sounds they gave it away. Hopefully Palsha and Magliozzi get a chance to redeem themselves later, but they lost this game themselves with nobody else to blame. It could've been a very special night, but instead it wasn't. If the Fireflies do this in Columbia, my concern is that it might turn off fans expecting professional quality baseball. By my count the Fireflies had 11 sloppy plays: 9 walks, 1 hit batter, and 1 error. That's not what you expect from guys trying to make the New York Mets. Yes, these were minor leaguers playing their first game of the season. But they weren't small children playing for the first time ever. After the 2010 and 2011 Gamecock national championships, Midlands baseball fans expect good baseball. The Blowfish never quite a lost a game like this, and they were a lowly college summer team! The Blowfish had to deal with issues of not being appreciated enough by the community. I hope the owners after departing Savannah realize this, and don't take it out on the fans if the Mets can't give Columbia good Class A baseball players. That's part of why minor league owners do emphasize the silly stuff, as they have no control of how good their baseball team will be. I just hope the Fireflies can prosper. The good news: last night won't affect that. Most Firefly fans (perhaps sadly) barely knew there was a game last night in Charleston.

Before the fireworks in Charleston started, the last song over the PA was Pompeii which has the classic line, "How can I be an optimist about this?" Well, aside from finally having a pro team locally to care about, there wasn't for last night. But the good news: it can only get better. I mean, how can it  be worse than last night? Our first ever game, and we lose it in the worst way possible to our in-state rivals who are affiliated with pro sports' most evil franchise. We play our home opener next week against Greenville, the city that stole Columbia's last pro team (to be fair, the Jackson, Mississippi area had stolen Greenville's AA team right before that). But even if we give that game away, we'll be at home! The drunk fans won't be cheering for a Firefly meltdown, and the Fireflies will get one last chance to bat even if they collapse in the top of the 9th. It's only going to get more fun when Spirit Communications Park opens next Thursday.

But we have a game in the books with our Fireflies wearing jerseys that say Columbia on them. Here is a look at the all-time standing of Firefly players, ranked by an old formula by MLB.com's online fantasy game.

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	12	7	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	68
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	33
Vinny Siena	2B	3	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15
Milton Ramos	SS	2	0	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15
Tyler Moore	C	1	1	1	1	0	0	2	1	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	1	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Dash Winningham	1B	1	1	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
David Thompson	3B	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Vicente Lupo	LF	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-5
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-9
Ivan Wilson	CF	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-11
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	4	3	1	4	0	0	1	-49

So Chase Ingram is the greatest player in Fireflies history! Hopefully we will see more players come and go and add to this legacy, and hopefully someday even get a win!

On a side note, the Indians took the MLB lead in rainouts yesterday with their second. MiLB is a bit more complicated, with Syracuse completely snowed out and Hartford unable to play at home due to their stadium not being ready (hopefully next week the Fireflies will be better than the Yard Goats in that regard). I'll try to get a full weather rundown later this weekend.