Columbia Falls in Front of 2900

COLUMBIA S.C. - The Columbia Blowfish (12-19) seem to be shy.

The Fish fell to 1-5 in games in front of crowds of 2000 or more with a loss to the Florence Redwolves (22-9) 5-2 at Capital City Stadium Sunday evening
by committing five errors on the evening.

As has happened quite frequently lately, the Blowfish fell behind early. The game opened with an error by first baseman Brison Celek (South Carolina), as he was unable to field a groundball hit just to his right. That allowed leadoff hitter Herman Petzold (Notre Dame) to reach base. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by shortstop Stephen Carmon (USC-Aiken). After a ground out added the second out of the inning, Trey Hernandez (Texas A&M- Corpus Christi) singled to drive in the game's first run.

The Blowfish were able to respond in the home half of the third though. With one out in the inning, Shawn Glover (Erskine) struck out swinging, but the ball bounced around behind catcher Ronnie Freeman (Kennesaw State). Glover alertly took off for first base, and reached safely when Freeman's throw down to the bag drew Ryan Durrence (Bethune-Cookman) off the bag. Glover then stole second to put himself in scoring position. After Ryan McCormick (Millersville) walked, both runners took off as part of a double steal. As Glover was tagged out well in advance of reaching the play on what looked like a missed sign by Chase Vergason (Florida Atlantic) for a hit-and-run, McCormick slid in safely. Vergason later walked in the at-bat. With runners on first and second, a scary situation unfolded in the Cap.

That inning feature two of the four Blowfish hits on the night. Columbia hitters only reached base eight times in the final eight innings.

"We need a better approach at the plate right now and start getting into more hitter's counts. This team can compete with anyone, but we need to start taking more line drive swings, not home run swings. We're popping the ball up way too often," Head Coach Lee Gronkiewicz said after the game.

Branfy Arias (Tusculum) stepped up to the plate, and was hit in the head by an errant pitch from Redwolves starter Alex Kreis (Jamestown, 4-1). Arias was face down in the batter's box motionless for approximately 15 seconds. He was helped to his feet, and remained in the game as he slowly took his base. As the crowd was still trying to process what had just unfolded, Celek redeemed himself for his earlier error by driving in two runs with one of his three singles on the day to make the score 2-1.

The Redwolves wasted no time in posting two runs of their own. After Freeman was hit by a pitch with one out, Seth Neely (Clemson) doubled to left centerfield to put two in scoring position with no outs. A wild pitch from Blowfish starter Chase Pickering (West Virginia) allowed Freeman to score and Neely to advance 90 feet. He would later score on a wild pitch that put Florence ahead to stay. In all, Pickering pitched 5 innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits. He walked five and struck out six.  Florence went on to add a run sixth and seventh innings to push the margin to its final total, 5-2.

The score certainly was much closer than it could have been. Florence left the bases loaded in the third, fifth and seventh innings, although they did score once with the bases loaded in the seventh. Columbia did not help themselves at all during this game was well, this was tied for their worst defensive performance since July 27th, 2009, when they commit six errors against Florence. The left side of the infield commit three errors alone, with two from Vergason and one from David Greene (Citadel). When asked about his team's performance on the evening, Coach Gronkiewicz replied:

"We need to start playing more aggressive, and starting playing the game with a little more passion."

NOTES: Outside of Celek (3-4) and Vergason, no other Blowfish had a hit... The last time the Blowfish had five errors in a game was June 4, also against Florence. They lost that game 15-1... Tonight was the first match-up between the CPL South Division rivals in over 18 days. The teams played each other four times in the first ten days of the season... Derrick Smith (Erskine) pitched 2 1/3 innings, giving up only 1 hit while striking out four... The attendance for tonight's game was 2896... The Blowfish are off tomorrow before finishing up a homestand at Capital City Stadium with their only game of the year against the Edenton Steamers. It will be Family Night at the ballpark, and 2 sodas and 2 hotdogs can be purchased for just 5 dollars. All college students will be admitted free with their school ID.