After Questionable Calls, Greenville Walks Off With A Win In The Opener

Columbia Fireflies @ Greenville Drive

June 13, 2017

Gary Cornish @ Jhonathan Diaz

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Columbia	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0		4	8	1
Greenville	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	1		5	12	0

W: Requena (4-2, 1.73 ERA); L: Griffin (0-1, 1.69 ERA)

Boxscore

Jonathan Hurst visits with Gary Cornish and the Fireflies infield

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Gary Cornish (3.26 ERA) – 7 IP, 10 H, 4 R (4 ER), 4 2B, 1 3B, 16 TB, 4 K (2 K/Sw), 15 GB: 4 FB: 6 LD: 2 PU, 94 Pitches (70 Strikes), 6 Swinging, 24 Called, 6.4% SwStr, 13% Whiff/Swing, 13.4 Pitches/IP, 31 BF

Cameron Griffin (L, 0-1, 1.69 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 1 2B, 3 TB, 1 BB, 1 K (0 K/Sw), 3 GB: 1 LD, 25 Pitches (15 Strikes), 0 Swinging, 6 Called, 0% SwStr, 0% Whiff/Swing, 25 Pitches/IP, 7 BF

Batters

CF - Gene Cone - 1-5, 1 RBI, 1 K, 9.1% SwStr, 22.2% Whiff/Swing, 4.4 Pitches/PA

SS - Andres Gimenez - 0-3, 1 SAC, 1 K, 9.1% SwStr, 16.7% Whiff/Swing, 2.75 Pitches/PA

3B - Michael Paez - 0-4, 6.7% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.75 Pitches/PA

1B - Dash Winningham - 1-4, 8.3% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 3 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Carpio - 1-2, 1 R, 2 BB, 6.7% SwStr, 20% Whiff/Swing, 3.75 Pitches/PA

C - Ali Sanchez - 1-4, 1 R, 1.75 Pitches/PA

RF - Jay Jabs - 2-4, 1 R, 4.8% SwStr, 10% Whiff/Swing, 5.25 Pitches/PA

DH - Reed Gamache - 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K, 17.6% SwStr, 42.9% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA

LF - Tim Tebow - 1-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 17.6% SwStr, 42.9% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            With just a half game separating the two teams in the standings, the Columbia Fireflies and Greenville Drive started a series that could determine the first-half division winner in the SAL Southern division, which will earn that team a playoff spot. The series opener was a tightly contested game that went 4-4 into the 9^th. The Fireflies had a chance to jump ahead in their half of the 9^th, but first baseman Tucker Tubbs made a spectacular play at first to start an inning ending double play. In the bottom half, the umps appear to have blown a call at second, which opened the door for the winning run to come home on a walkoff.

            Although this game ended up tightly contested from the 5^th inning on, the first few innings were dominated by the Drive. Greenville starter Jhonathan Diaz allowed just a walk through the first four innings and started the 5^th with a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Columbia starter Gary Cornish’s stuff looked good over the first three innings, but the Drive took a 2-0 lead on three well-placed doubles, two of which were flares that fell in just fair down the RF line.

            Those two flare doubles came in the 1^st, but Cornish was able to strikeout Tyler Hill and Tubbs back-to-back to strand a runner on third in the frame.

Swinging strike

K #1

K #2

            Tyler Spoon doubled on a grounder into LF leading off the Greenville 2^nd and they got him around and in to make it a 2-0 game. After the double, Cornish retired six straight, adding a strikeout of Santiago Espinal in the 3^rd.

Carpio at second

Two of three pitches for Cornish's third strikeout

Swinging strike

Gimenez at short

            If we had the statcast for the first three extra base hits, the launch angle and exit velocities would make them low percentage hits (and even lower percentage extra base hits), but the next two hits were a different story. The first was a double off the bat of Hill that was lined over Jay Jabs head in RF, and that only gets caught if outfielders are playing extremely deep. Tubbs followed with a grounder to Andres Gimenez, who made up a heads up play to get the lead runner at third for the first out of the inning. Up next was Spoon, and statcast would’ve labeled his hit a high percentage homerun outcome, as he crushed a 410+ foot triple to center field that gets out of a lot of parks. Spoon was ruled safe at third, but replay suggests he was out. The umps call proved huge when Isaias Lucena followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

Hill

Gimenez with the head up plays

Spoon

K #4

Paez at third

            The Fireflies charged back with four runs in the 5^th after the first six reached consecutively to knock Diaz out of the game. Carpio worked his second walk of the game to start the frame. Ali Sanchez followed with a single through the right side and then a Jay Jabs single loaded the bases. Reed Gamache got the first bases loaded opportunity and he came through with an RBI single to get the Fireflies on the board. Tim Tebow was up next and he struck the first pitch he saw off the mini-monster in LF to double home a pair of runs. Finally, Gene Cone lined a single to CF to bring home Gamache. Unfortunately, Tebow had to hold up near second on the Cone hit, as Cedrola made a great diving attempt at the ball but was ruled to have trapped it. Even though they did advance Tebow to third with the first out of the frame, they couldn’t get him home to take the lead. Hunter Smith took over for Diaz after the Cone hit and retired the first eleven batters he faced.

Sanchez

Jabs

Gamache

Tebow

Tebow

Cone

The trap (the broadcast zoomed in to replay this one)

            Cornish was able to keep the Drive off the board through the 7^th, working around a few singles to finish out his start on a high note. The Fireflies announcers were calling some fastballs as high as 94-95 early, but I didn’t hear any calls later in the game. They also noted that he seemed to be throwing harder than in his first two starts, which is usually a good sign. (There are several Cornish call strikes below; GIF's are in ordered by inning, Cornish strikes first then outs).

Paez at third

Carpio at second

Gimenez at SS

Paez at third, nice scoop from Dash

            Columbia finally broke through for some more hits in the 8^th, but Dash Winningham and Luis Carpio’s singles came with two outs and led to no runs. Jabs singled to lead off the 9^th and went to second when Tebow walked two batters later, but then Tubbs started the unassisted double play.

Dash

Carpio

Jabs

Tubbs

            Cameron Griffin took over for Cornish in the 8^th, started the frame with a strikeout of Tubbs, and worked around a two out double from Lucena. Then the bottom of the 9^th happened to him. To be fair to the ump, had Griffin executed better in the 9^th then it never would’ve come down to the one field ump’s call in a game with no replay. Griffin walked the leadoff batter Nick Lovullo and the Drive were looking to bunt him to second. Cedrola got the bunt down on his second attempt, but Griffin fielded it quickly enough to have a clear shot to get the out at second. Unfortunately, his throw sailed high and into the runner a little, causing Gimenez to jump off the bag to catch it, and then try to swipe down and tag Lovullo. It appears like he did this successfully, but I suppose you could say the video is inconclusive since it’s not 100% clear he got the tag down. Santiago Espinal followed with a grounder to Carpio that was misplayed for the game’s winning hit – it looked like Carpio was looking at what he should do with the ball before making sure he had secured the ball.

Jose Leger

            So that's two call that appear to have been blown by the same umpire, and both led to runs for the Drive. There were two other plays that I didn't even include because the video evidence is too blurry to be conclusive, but both went against Columbia. After a tough and disappointing loss in game one of this series, the Fireflies will turn to Merandy Gonzalez (8-1, 1.56 ERA) for a must-win game two. The Fireflies dropped to 1.5 games back with an elimination number of four after yesterday’s loss, so one more Drive win would take the outcome of the first half out of Columbia’s hand.

Pitcher Coverage

Table 1 – Cornish pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Total	15	9	8	16	16	20	10	94
Strikes	13	6	7	13	11	11	9	70
Swinging*	3	0	2	0	0	1	0	6

*6.4% Swinging strike rate; 13% Whiff/Swing rate

  

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