Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
April 29, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
KINSTON INDIANS (7-13) @ LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (6-12)
April 29th, 2011 -- 6:05 PM
Calvin Falwell Field at Lynchburg City Stadium
RHP Brett Brach (1-1, 1.80) vs. LHP Matt Crim (1-1, 2.31)
THE HILLCATS: Thursday night's series finale against the Wilmington Blue Rocks was rained out and rescheduled for June 14th...Wednesday the Hillcats captured a pair of victories over the first place Wilmington Blue Rocks...First came the completion of the Tuesday's suspended contest, which was delayed by rain again for nearly an hour and a half Wednesday night before concluding in favor of Lynchburg 3-2...Wednesday's regularly scheduled game was shortened to a seven-inning affair...The Hillcats won the second game 5-2...Lynchburg continues to look up from fourth place in the Carolina League Northern Division, now 6-12...
VS. KINSTON: Tonight will be the first match-up between the Hillcats and Indians this season...Lynchburg took the 2010 season series 14-6...However, the Hillcats have switched affiliations since last season...The Myrtle Beach Pelicans (2010 Braves Advance-A affiliate) lost the season series 8-12 against the Indians a season ago...
BEATEN BY THE BEST: After taking two from Wilmington Wednesday night, the Hillcats are still just 2-10 against teams with winning records this season ...The Salem Red Sox, who currently hold the best record in the Carolina League at 13-5, are 6-0 against Lynchburg...Myrtle Beach, currently at 13-6, swept the 'Cats in three games in Lynchburg...On the other hand, the Hillcats are 4-2 against team's with a .500 record or worse (3-1 vs. Frederick and 1-1 vs. Potomac)...
WELCOME TO LYNCHBURG: The Hillcats called up two pitchers, LHP Blaine Sims and RHP Ryan Weber, from Class-A Rome last Thursday after RHP Yeliar Castro was promoted to Class- AA Mississippi and RHP Cory Rasmus was placed on the disabled list...Neither Sims, nor Weber had prior experience at the Advanced-A level...Sims' debut could not have been better as he pitched four perfect innings of relief Sunday in Frederick, while striking out five...Weber made his debut last night, it wasn't perfect but still very good as he delivered four innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks, while striking out one...Neither factored into the decisions as the Hillcats trailed throughout each of their outings...Another call up from Rome, RHP Dan Jurik, joined the club Wednesday...
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Hillcats played mistake-free baseball, while the Blue Rocks committed five errors in games two and three of last series, and as it turned out, the Hillcats won both games...On the season though, the Hillcats have committed 25 errors through their first 18 games, good for the most in the league...The past two flawless games however raised the team fielding percentage back above .960 (.963) however, it is still worst in the league...The errors have not gone unpunished, as the Hillcats staff has surrendered 21 unearned runs, also most in CL and seven more than Wilmington with second most...17 of the errors have come up the middle of the infield...Andrelton Simmons is responsible for eight miscues at shortstop in 14 games, and Matt Weaver in his one game at short added another error to the position as well as one at second base...The other seven errors up the middle have come at the expense of Phil Gosselin at second base...
DOUBLE DIPPING: Even though technically Wednesday night wasn't a double header, the Hillcats and Blue Rocks completed two games...The Hillcats were victorious in both contests, just like they swept their only real double header of the season last Saturday in Frederick...
BEST OF THE BRAVOS: Eight members of the Hillcats are ranked amongst the top 30 prospects in the Braves organization according to Baseball America...That list includes RHP Arodys Vizcaino (7), SS Andrelton Simmons (15), RHP David Hale (17), RHP Dimasther Delgado (18), OF Todd Cunningham (20), OF Adam Milligan (22), INF Joe Leonard (23) and 2B Phil Gosselin (25)...Vizcaino was tabbed the 93rd best prospect in all of baseball by BA as well...
'SIMM'PLY THE BEST: INF Andrelton Simmons was a perfect 3-for-3 in Wednesday night's seven-inning game with two RBI, and a run scored...His three hits were a single, double, and triple bringing him just a home run shy of the cycle...His double and triple were timely as well driving in Joe Leonard from first base on each occasion...In the suspended game, Simmons went 1-for-3 with a stolen base...He was the only player on either side to collect four hits between the two games completed Wednesday night...
PITCHERS BE'WARE': OF L.V. Ware had his 2011 coming out party over the Hillcats' five-game road trip last week...He hit .555 (10-18) with four doubles, two triples and four runs scored...He also stole four bases and has seemingly taking over as the 'Cats everyday leadoff man...He's 5-for-16 leading off innings this season and with Ware batting leadoff for Lynchburg, the Hillcats are 5-3 this season...He extended his season-high hit streak to nine games in Wednesday night's suspended contest but went 0-for-3 in the seven-inning game that followed snapping the streak...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER : RHP Brett Brach was selected in the tenth round in the 2009 draft by out of Monmouth University (NJ)...In 2009, went 5-2 with a 2.19 ERA in his first professional season with Rookie-level Mahoning Valley...Ranked tied for second in the New York-Penn League in starts (15)...In 2010, ranked fourth among all Midwest League starters in lowest BB/9.0 IP (2.03)...Made two appearances with Kinston in 2010 (0-1, 3.38 ERA, 2.2 IP, 4 H,2 R, 1 ER, BB, 2 K)...
• Discuss this story on the Carolina League message board...
Carolina League Stories from April 29, 2011
- Odorizzi Dominates Again As Rocks Blank Dash - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Odorizzi, Rocks Blank Dash 4-0 - Winston-Salem Dash
- Unlikely Heroes Lead Sox To Win - Potomac Nationals
- Salem Downs Potomac 5-2 in Opener - Salem Red Sox
- Bundy Deals; Ward and Townsend Go Deep in 5-1 Over Myrtle Beach - Frederick Keys
- Pelicans Fall to Frederick in Series Opener - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Kinston Blanks the Hillcats - Lynchburg Hillcats
- K-Tribe Blanks Lynchburg 2-0 - Kinston Indians
- Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes - Winston-Salem Dash
- Davis Placed on D.L., Shelton Returns - Winston-Salem Dash
- Keys Return Home May 2nd - Frederick Keys
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Pelicans Game Notes - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.