NORTH AUGUSTA, SC: Tate Southisene and Owen Carey combined to reach in seven of ten plate appearances, but the rest of the offense could not locate the big hit as the Jackets fell in extras 6-5 to the Fireflies Sunday evening.
The Jackets had hits in every inning, and put a man at third in each of the first two, but it was the Fireflies who scored first against Jacob Shafer.
Shafer issued a pair of walks to Josi Novas and Henry Ramos, putting men at the corners with two outs. Shafer appeared ready to exit the inning scorelessly, but a weak pop up from Luke Nowak was dropped by Juan Mateo, scoring the game’s first run.
After opener Dash Albus exited following the third, the Jackets charged against Henson Leal to open their own line of scoring.
Hayden Friese led off with a single, his second of three hits on the day, and came all the way around to score as Joe Olsavsky doubled off the fence to tie the game.
Augusta would strand Olsavsky in the 4th, but took the lead in the 5th, as Southisene tripled and then trotted home on a base knock from Carey.
Shafer worked into the 6th for the first time this year, but a leadoff double from Nowak ended his longest outing yet.
It was Owen Hackman who came on for relief, but he was unable to strand Nowak, who scored the tying run unearned after an error and groundout.
With the game tied in the seventh, the GreenJackets set the table with a John Gil walk and Southisene infield single against reliever Fraynel Nova.
Carey continued his hot end to the week, roping an RBI double to put Augusta in front for the first time. Juan Mateo followed up with a sacrifice fly, and the Jackets took a two-run lead into the 8th.
The GreenJacket lead would last all of three batters, as Columbia rudely greeted Albert Rivas with a one-out double from Nowak and a game-tying home run from Ramon Ramirez.
Yandel Ricardo followed with a triple off the fence, and he would dash home on a short fly ball, where the throw from Carey was dropped at home, scoring Ricardo on a missed catch error.
Down to the final three outs in the 9th, Augusta rallied one last time to tie the game. Southisene cracked a one-out double for his first professional three-hit game, and Carey followed up again with a game-tying single.
A Mateo base hit put the winning run in scoring position, but the Jackets punched out on back-to-back at bats to force extras.
The Fireflies took the lead for good in the top of the 10th, using two bloop singles from Ramirez and Ricardo to score the automatic runner against Jaylen Paden. Paden allowed a walk to load the bases, but retired the next three batters to keep Augusta within striking distance.
The Jackets played for the win in the bottom half, eschewing small ball and the bunt, but the automatic runner could not score against Augusto Mendieta as the Fireflies won for the fifth time in six games this week.
The GreenJackets are off Monday, Aug. 25, before heading on the road for the final time this year Tuesday, as they take on the Charleston RiverDogs for seven games including a doubleheader.
Augusta will be back home for the year’s last homestand beginning on Labor Day, with a rare Monday game and postgame fireworks.
