Blowfish Hammer Sharks

COLUMBIA-Tyler McBride had three hits and Matt Leeds hit his first home run of the season to lead the Columbia Blowfish over the Wilmington Sharks 8-2 Sunday night at Capital City Stadium.

Blowfish (7-14) starting pitcher Justin Hopper (3-1) gave up only two runs, one earned, on just three hits in five innings to get the win. Adam Schrader (1-3) was charged with five runs off six hits in five innings to earn the loss. Columbia's John Long pitched three scoreless innings of relief in which he allowed only one hit.

McBride doubled to lead off the second inning for the Blowfish. A sacrifice bunt from Trent Still moved him over to third base, and McBride scored on a groundout by Catlin Carter to give Columbia a 1-0 lead.

Wilmington (9-13) tied the game 1-1 in the third. Jesse Bosnik hit a ground ball that squirted through the legs of first baseman Nick Chinners. Bosnik advanced to second on a wild pitch from Hopper and scored on a sacrifice fly by Greg Bachman. The Sharks had runners on second and third with one out, but Hopper forced Allen King to foul out and struck out Graham Fronk to end the threat.

Leeds needed just one pitch to give Columbia the lead back as he hit a go-ahead home run to left field. Shawn Glover then doubled and later scored on an RBI single by McBride. McBride came around on a double by Still to make it 4-1, and Still later scored on Carter's single to give Columbia a 5-1 advantage.

Bosnik singled home Andrew Guerra as Wilmington closed the gap 5-2 in the fifth. That would be all the scoring for the Sharks, however.

Columbia added three more runs in the eighth. McBride walked with the bases loaded to score Glover, and Gabe Grammar scored on a passed ball by King. Carter then plated McBride with another RBI single to make it 8-2 Blowfish.

Notes: Columbia's Jim Rider had an infield single in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to ten games… The 7-through-9 batters for Columbia were a combined 7-for-10 with 6 RBIs...Leeds was playing for the first time in over a week after aggravating his knee...The Blowfish and Sharks will play again tomorrow at Legion Field in Wilmingotn. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m..