CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats at Nationals Tonight

Published on July 21, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg salvaged a 10-3 win over Salem on Sunday night in the final game of their three-game series with the Red Sox at City Stadium...The Hillcats had lost the first two games of the set and six out of their last seven games...Tonight they open a three-game series with Potomac and play game four of a six-game homestand...The Cats finished their most recent road trip with a 3-4 mark, taking two out of three at Winston-Salem and dropping three-out of four at Potomac...

VS. POTOMAC: The Hillcats are 8-6 against the Nationals this season and are 5-2 at home...Last season the two teams split the season series 10-10 and the P-Nats were just one of two teams the Cats had a .500 record or better against last year...Lynchburg won the final five games against each other last season...In the all-time series Lynchburg has the edge 151-142 and they are 82-69 at City Stadium...The Hillcats had won 12 of the last 15 games between these two teams before dropping three out of four at Pfitzner Stadium last week...Potomac has moved a half game ahead of Lynchburg for the best overall record in the Carolina League...

OLD DOMINION: This series will complete a stretch of 10 straight games against opponent inside the state of Virginia...Seven of those ten contest against Potomac and three games at home against Salem...Lynchburg, Potomac and Salem are the only three teams from VA in the eight team Carolina League...Lynchburg played in the Virginia league for 12 seasons, most recently in 1942...

POSITION TO SCORE: On Sunday night Lynchburg went 5-for-15 (.333) with men in scoring position and hit double digits for the second time in the second half...In the eight games prior, in which the Hillcats were 2-6, they batted .163 (15-for-92) with men in scoring position...In the first two games of the series they were just 3-for-27 (.111) with men in scoring position...

WIIILLLSSSOOONNN! LHP Justin Wilson went a career long six innings of work and allowed just one run in earning his fourth victory of the season...He has now gone five innings or more in four straight starts after he made it through five innings just five times in his first 14 starts of the campaign...In his last three outings he has allowed two runs or less and is posting a 2.81 ERA that has lowered his overall ERA from 6.75 to 5.91...His outing came the night after RHP Bryan Morris went a career-long six and 2/3 innings of action on Saturday night...

THE SECRET OF THE GOO: 1B Matt Hague went 2-for-5 on Sunday night with an RBI and a run to extended his hitting streak to eight games...Over that time he is 15-for-36 (.417) with six doubles, four RBI, four runs and two walks...He has hit in 19 of his last 22 games and over that time he has raised his average from .278 to .303...He is tied for fourth in the Carolina League in batting...Sunday night was the fourth consecutive multi-hit game for Hague, his fifth in six games and he leads the team with his 25 multi-hit contests on the year...

SOCKING SAKAMOTO: 1B Kent Sakamoto went 1-for-2 on Sunday night with an RBI, three runs scored, a walk and got hit by a pitch twice...Since returning from a foot injury on July 16th, he has gone 6-for-14 (.429) with two doubles, three RBI, six runs scored and three walks...

LENGTHY STINT: The Hillcats activated RHP Tom Boleska from the Disabled List on Sunday after he had elbow surgery...He has not played since April 15th when he earned a victory in three innings of relief against Winston-Salem...He was placed on the DL on April 17th...

BATTLING BISHOP: RHP Harrison Bishop tossed two and 1/3 scoreless innings on Saturday night...He struck out three and did not allow a hit...Bishop has now worked eight a 1/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run...He has struck out 13 and allowed just two hits over that time and lowered his ERA from 6.27 to 5.15...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Adam Carr was selected by Washington in the 18th round of the 2005 draft out of Oklahoma State...His junior and final season with the Cowboys he batted .336 with 22 home runs and 86 RBI and led the Big 12 in homers and runs driven in...He only made five appearances on the mound and went 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA with a save for OSU...The Nationals made him a pitcher and he went 1-0 with a 2.95 ERA and one save in 10 games with the GCL Nationals in 2006...He also made six appearances in relief with Savannah and had a 2.25 ERA...The next season he moved up to Advanced-A and posted a 3-1 record with a 1.81 ERA and 10 saves in 41 games with Potomac...He finished the season with Double-A Harrisburg and went 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA and two saves in seven games...Last season he returned to Potomac and went 3-4 with a 6.15 ERA and five saves in 21 games with the Nats...He also spent time with Harrisburg and had a 3-4 record with a 6.95 ERA and 11 saves in 30 games...This season he began with Harrisburg and went 0-1 with a 8.71 ERA in eight games before getting demoted back to Potomac...With the Nats he has gone 0-1 with a 5.18 ERA in 16 games (three starts)...In his three years in the CL he is a combined 0-1 with a 3.15 ERA (seven earned runs in 20 innings) with a save in 10 games (one start) against Lynchburg...He started against the Hillcats last Wednesday at Potomac and allowed just one earned run in five innings of work in a P-Nats victory...

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Carolina League Stories from July 21, 2009


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