By Noah Adcock-Howeth, Augusta GreenJackets
COLUMBIA – A solid start from Owen Hackman was soured by two miscues, both of which turned into home runs that propelled the Columbia Fireflies to a 5-2 victory over the GreenJackets Friday night.
Hackman tied his season high in strikeouts with seven in five quality frames, but took his team-high third loss of the year on the back of two big swings. Ramon Ramirez opened the scoring in the third after a two-out walk to Derlin Figueroa extended the inning, depositing a hanging slider over the wall in left for his team-high sixth homer of the season. Josi Novas crushed a solo shot in the next inning, handing Columbia a lead it wouldn’t let go.
While Hackman was solid in his endeavors, Firefly starter Yunior Marte was even more so, scattering four hits through six scoreless innings for his third win of the year. Marte’s only trouble came in the second, when Douglas Glod doubled and Mason Guerra singled with two outs, but Marte induced a ground ball from Jake Steels to emerge unscathed.
Augusta finally broke through in the top of the eighth, taking advantage of a few Columbia miscues to bring themselves within a run. The Jackets loaded the bases without a hit via two walks and a hit by pitch from reliever Fraynel Nova. With Augusta threatening, Eric Hartman hit a sharp bouncer to second, and Angel Acosta committed a costly fielding error that scored two. Julio Rosario was summoned to stop the bleeding, and held the Jackets off the board any further.
The Fireflies struck back in the bottom half, beginning the inning with a squibber to third that was muffed by Leiker Figueroa. A bunt single and RBI double followed, and an additional ground ball from Acosta snatched both runs right back and built the lead back up to three. Augusta snagged a pair of one-out hits in the ninth against Rosario, but he held the line again to hand Columbia its second win of the week.
With each side drawing two wins in the week’s first four games, the weekend becomes all the more important as both teams squabble for a playoff spot in the first half of the season. Rayven Antonio and Josh Hansell will get the start Saturday night, in front of what is expected to be a near-sellout crowd at Segra Park.
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