Ingram, Missigman, and Palsha K Their Way Through The Rome Finale

Columbia Fireflies @ Rome Braves

April 13, 2016

Chase Ingram @ Patrick Weigel

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Columbia	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0		3	5	0
Rome	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0		2	9	2

W: Ingram (1-0, 1.80 ERA); L: Jones (0-1, 4.91 ERA); Save: Palsha (1, 5.79 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Chase Ingram (1.80 ERA) – 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 8 K, 77 Pitches (57 Strikes), 9 GO, HBP

Craig Missigman (H, 1, 3.00 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 K, 1 GO

Alex Palsha (S, 1, 5.79 ERA) – 2 IP, 2 H, 4 K, 2 GO

Patrick Weigel (1.80 ERA) – 4 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 6 K, 83 Pitches (53 Strikes), 4 GO: 1 FO

Batters

DH – J.C. Rodriguez – 1-4, SO

3B – David Thompson – 1-3, R, RBI (8), BB, SO

1B – Dash Winningham – 1-4, R, RBI (1), SO

LF – Joe Tuschak – 1-4, RBI (3), SO, CS

SS – Milton Ramos – 1-3, R

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies hot starting pitching continued Wednesday morning in their finale against Rome. Chase Ingram began the second turn much like he did the first, by setting a high bar for the rest of the rotation. Ingram was dealing over 6 very strong innings, and could’ve easily gone deeper if not for his early April pitch limits. Before he left, the Fireflies would give him back a one run lead in the top half of the 6^th, and then Ingram put a punctuation mark on his performance by striking out Bradley Keller for a third time to end the bottom half. Braves starter Patrick Weigel flashes some nice stuff during his outing, but had to leave after the 4^th due to his high pitch count. David Thompson continued his hot hitting ways, picking up his 8^th RBI in just a week, and scoring a run on Dash Winningham’s 1^st RBI of the year. After 9^th inning struggles against Charleston, the Columbia bullpen was lights out against Rome, throwing 4 scoreless innings across the 3 games (two of them were 7-inning games due to the double-header). Craig Missigman and Alex Palsha combined to add 6 strikeouts to the Fireflies tally, and the combined 14 strikeouts narrowly set the season high – they combined for 13 strikeouts during the nono.

            I break this game down in more detail below, so enjoy. The Fireflies head home Thursday for their first every game in beautiful Spirit Communications Park, with P.J. Conlon scheduled to be the first to take the mound at 7:05 PM.

Scoring Highlights

            J.C. Rodriguez picked up his hit in the 1^st on a bunt single.

            Milton Ramos led off the 3^rd inning with a single and would eventually come around to score. It didn’t seem like the inning was going anywhere, as Kevin Kaczmarski and J.C. followed with strikeouts, but then Vinny Siena extended the inning with a two out walk. David Thompson then picked up an RBI single to put Columbia up 1-0.

            Thompson drew a one out walk in the 6^th to spark the Fireflies next rally. After a wild pitch moved Thompson up, Dash Winningham singled him home to tie the game at 2. Dash would move up to 2B on another wild pitch, to 3B on a wild pickoff attempt, and then score on a Joe Tuschak single into RF.

Defensive Highlights

            David Thompson and Milton Ramos made some nice plays throughout the game, but the Rome camera work had a little trouble keeping up with the action – it stinks, but they both impressed the road announcers with their defense throughout opening week.

            Chase Ingram made one of the least graceful plays you’ll see on the diamond, but he did get the out.

Pitcher Coverage

Chase Ingram

Table 1 – Ingram pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Total
Total	14	10	13	22	9	9	77
Strikes	9	9	8	16	7	8	57
Swinging*	2	2	0	5	1	3	13

*16.9% Swinging strike rate

First pitch strike to 19/25 batters faced (76%)

            Chase Ingram induced weak contact from the first 3 batters of the night, and then struck out Matt Tellor to end the 1^st inning.

K1

            Justin Ellison hit a leadoff double against Ingram in the 2^nd, but Chase would pick him off, and then quickly strike out Lucas Herbert and Bradley Keller to finish the frame.

K2

K3

            Ingram induced 3 groundouts while working around a HBP in the 3^rd inning.

            He struck out Austin Riley and Tellor swinging to start the 4^th inning, but then ran into two out trouble. Ellison singled through the right side, advanced on a wild pitch, and then scored on an RBI single from Herbert. Ingram bounced back by striking out Keller to finish the frame.

K4

K5

K6

            Luke Dykstra led off the 5^th with a single into CF and eventually came around to score. Alejandro Salazar sac bunted him over to 2B, Ray-Patrick Didder singled him to 3B, and then Dykstra came home on a fielder’s choice grounder to Ramos – Ramos came home with the throw, but needed a perfect throw to get Dykstra, and his throw was to the 1B side. Ingram responded by striking out Riley again before picking off another baserunner.

K7

            Ingram worked around a leadoff single in his final frame, striking out Keller for a third time to finish an inning.

K8

Bonus

Craig Missigman

            Missigman worked a perfect 7^th, which included strikeouts of Salazar and Didder.

Alex Palsha

            Palsha allowed a leadoff single and stolen base to Ronald Acuna in the 8^th, but struck out the other 3 batters: Riley, Tellor, and Ellison.

            He extended his streak to 4 straight strikeouts when he punched out Herbert leading off the 9^th. Palsha then worked around a two out single to close out the Fireflies 4^th win on their first ever road trip.

Patrick Weigel

Table 2 – Weigel pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Total	22	16	27	18	83
Strikes	15	11	16	11	53
Swinging*	2	1	5	2	10

*12% Swinging strike rate

First pitch strike to 11/17 batters faced (65%)

Partrick Weigel is a 21-year old who was the Braves 7^th round pick from 2015. He struck out David Thompson in the 1^st inning.

            Weigel got Joe Tuschak swinging leading off the 2^nd inning.

            Kevin Kaczmarski, J.C. Rodriguez, and Dash Winningham all struck out while the Fireflies jumped ahead in the 3^rd inning.

            Jeff Diehl struck out looking against Weigel in the 4^th.

K6

How to Safely Watch Mercury Cross the Sun on May 9 https://t.co/JEjMFV7KdJ pic.twitter.com/mrBpbUi33R

— Universe Today (@universetoday) April 13, 2016