Fireflies Celebrate Top 10 Moments of 2025
10.) David Shields Scoreless Inning Streak (Photo) July 18, David Shields started one of the most dominant runs in Fireflies pitching history. The 2024 second round pick went 27.1-consecutive frames without allowing an earned run. During the stretch, he fanned 38 opponents. It was the third-longest streak without allowing an
10.) David Shields Scoreless Inning Streak (Photo)
July 18, David Shields started one of the most dominant runs in Fireflies pitching history. The 2024 second round pick went 27.1-consecutive frames without allowing an earned run. During the stretch, he fanned 38 opponents. It was the third-longest streak without allowing an earned run in Fireflies franchise history. It trailed Ryan Ramsey (30.2 innings in 2023) and Adonis Uceta (29.1 innings in 2017).
9.) Celebrating A Starry Night at Segra Park
This was a moment larger than baseball at Segra Park. The Fireflies honored those who have suffered through, are battling and have defeated pediatric cancer with a post-game ceremony. The team raised over $5,000 for charities that help fight cancer. The Fireflies also embraced and helped show the support circle around those currently fighting in the powerful ceremony.
8.) Gonzalez Sets Franchise Steals Record
Buoyed by an April where Asbel Gonzalez swiped 30 bases in 22 games, the centerfielder stole a franchise-record 78 bases in 2025 for the Fireflies. He passed Tyler Tolbert’s single season record before the end of the first-half and Gonzalez didn’t stop there, surpassing Jean Ramirez’s 68 steals form 2021-23 by 10 in only a single season. Gonzalez also blazed past the single-season franchise runs scored record held by Erick Torres (70) as he scored 82 runs for the Fireflies during the 2025 campaign.
7.) Fans Build Beer Bat Tower
You’ve heard of beer cup snakes and certainly you’ve made a beer can pyramid, but the best fans in the world trailblazed a new medium of beverage stacking at Segra Park. Now introducing: The Beer Bat Tower. And it. Was. Glorious. See for yourself below.
6.) Ramon Ramirez Two Homer Game vs Augusta
What’s cooler than one home run to tie a game? How about a multi-homer game that includes a three-run walk-off blast? That’s what catcher Ramon Ramirez did May 17 in a thrilling 7-6 win over the Augusta GreenJackets that spanned 11 innings at Segra Park. The backstop tied the game with a two-run blast of GreenJacket reliever Jacob Gomez in the bottom of the eighth. Then he came back to the dish in the 11th to face Gomez again and clobbered a 107 MPH game-winning three-run bomb to catapult The Fireflies to a 7-6 victory!
Ramon Ramirez rewrote the record book for the Fireflies tonight:
— John Kocsis Jr. (@JKocsis8) May 18, 2025
1.) 1st walk-off HR since 5/3/23
2.) 1st 2-HR game since he did it 4/13
3.) 1st 5 RBI game since he did it 4/13
4.) Back-to-back games with a HR for first time since 4/19, 4/22
Yeah, that'll play. #LetsGlow pic.twitter.com/F9U9W27fDh
5.) Columbia Celebrates The Fireflies 2 Millionth Fan!
Friday, June 27 marked an important milestone for The Midlands. The Fireflies welcomed their 2 millionth fan to Segra Park. Hank Thompson from Rock Hill, South Carolina attended his first Fireflies game and became fan number 2 million! It came with some great perks. He received season tickets for the 2026 season, a custom jersey and free hot dogs for a year.
4.) Winning The South Division Playoff Series vs Myrtle Beach
Not only did The Fireflies make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2025, but the team won their first playoff series! Columbia swept The Myrtle Beach Pelicans in a best-of-three series to earn The South Division Carolina League crown. The series was highlighted by stellar pitching. Both David Shields and Kendry Chourio allowed only one run in their starts and the bullpen was perfect across eight innings in the series. Camden Edge, Bryson Dudley, Augusto Mendieta and Dash Albus helped anchor the series down as Columbia took game one 4-1 and game two 2-1. Jose Cerice played great situational ball in game one as he drove in a pair of runs without a hit and Stone Russell had an RBI double to score Ramon Ramirez. In game two, all the offense needed was a Luke Nowak two RBI single up the middle to score Yandel Ricardo and Asbel Gonzalez to lock down the victory.
3.) David Shields Winning Pitcher of the Year Award
Columbia has had a host of South Atlantic League and Carolina League All-Stars, but the team has never had a player or pitcher of the year until this year. David Shields was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Year after posting a 2.01 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 71.2 innings with the Fireflies in his first season in pro baseball. The southpaw was top-five in the League amongst pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched in ERA, walk percentage, strikeout rate and WHIP. The accolades didn’t stop in the regular season. Shields pitched and won the Fireflies first-ever post-season game and the Fireflies were 17-3 in games that Shields started this year.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
— Columbia Fireflies (@ColaFireflies) September 16, 2025
Major League Baseball & the Carolina League have named David Shields the 2025 Carolina League Pitcher of the Year 👏
At just 19 years old, Shields becomes the first Fireflies player ever to win the award, after posting a 2.01 ERA, 81 strikeouts and a… pic.twitter.com/ewR50gZfmA
2.) Dash Albus Fires First Eight-Pitch Immaculate Inning
Dash Albus made baseball history July 29 at Segra Park. The reliever came in to close out a game against the Hickory Crawdads and earned the Fireflies third immaculate inning in franchise history. It was Columbia’s first immaculate inning since May 14, 2021 when Heribert Garcia struck out three batters on nine pitches in the sixth inning for Columbia. What makes Albus’s immaculate inning even more impressive is that he only needed to use eight pitches to get the three strikeouts—thanks to a pitch-clock violation. Since the pitch clock was implemented in 2023, there have been 54 immaculate innings, but Albus was the first one that had a pitch clock violation in the mix. It gave Albus the first ever 8-pitch immaculate inning.
1.) Fireflies Clinch First Playoff Berth
There are moments that will stick around a franchise until the end of time. Seeing neon and navy jerseys being soaked with champagne and cider as The Fireflies celebrated clinching their first-ever playoff berth in the final game of the first half in Zebulon is one of those moments. The Fireflies came to Columbia in 2016 and didn’t make it to the playoffs in four years while affiliated with The New York Mets. In year five with Kansas City, the team celebrated for the first time.