Hillcats Even Series With Wilmington, Prepare for Sunday
Published on August 29, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
THE HILLCATS: Last night Lynchburg topped Wilmington 3-1 to even up the three-game series at City Stadium at a game a piece...Tonight is the series finale of the set against the Blue Rocks, the final contest of a seven-game homestand and the last game home game of the 2010 regular season...The Green & Gold are at the end of a stretch of 14 out of 17 games at Calvin Falwell Field...Thus far they are 10-6 over that time and they are 3-3 on their current home swing...The Cats entered today four and a half games back of Potomac for the final playoff spot in the Northern Division with eight games left to play in the second half of the season...
VS. WILMINGTON: The Hillcats are 7-12 against the Blue Rocks this season and 3-6 at home...The Cats went 5-15 against the Rocks during the regular season last year, 3-7 at City Stadium and 2-8 at Frawley Stadium...Wilmington was the only team in the Carolina League with a winning record versus the Hillcats last season...In the post-season though, the Cats topped the Rocks three-games-to-two in a best of five series to win the Northern Division Championship and advance to the Mills Cup...Wilmington has the all-time advantage over Lynchburg 191-128...
BACK BREAKER PART DEUX: Last night Potomac was three outs away from falling in Frederick, which would have put the Hillcats three and a half games back of the Nationals in the Northern Division playoff chase...The P-Nats rallied though with a three-run ninth inning to beat the Keys 6-4 at Harry Grove Stadium...This a night after Lynchburg was two outs away from winning the series opener against Wilmington on Friday night and could not close the door...The Blue Rocks plated a run in the ninth inning to tie the game and later scored three in the 12th inning to take the lead for good...The Hillcats had not trailed prior to the 12th inning, had a 5-3 lead going into the eighth inning and a 5-4 advantage heading into the ninth...The Cats were 47-3 when leading entering the ninth inning before last night...Now Lynchburg is four and a half games back of the final post-season spot with eight games left to go in the season...
LIFE IN THE LIMELIGHT: UTIL Cody Puckett was named the Hillcats Most Valuable Player and the Most Popular Player by the team last night...He responded to the recognition with his 18th home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning last night...The former eighth round selection of the Reds is batting .272 with 18 homers (tied for the team lead), 53 RBI and 17 steals (first on the team)...Puckett is second in the CL in doubles (40), second in extra-base hits (62), tied for third in home runs and fourth in total bases (226)...He hit his 40th double of the season Wednesday night to put him alone in second place on the single season all-time Hillcats list (passing Freddy Garcia, 1996 and Pat Magness, 2005)...He is now one short of tying the single season record (Ray Navarrette, 2002)...He is also five short of tying the all-time Lynchburg record (45, Scott Cooper, 1988)...The Hillcats also honored RHP Jordan Hotchkiss as the Starting Pitcher of the Year and LHP Donnie Joseph as the Reliever of the Year...Hotchkiss was 10-4 with a 2.30 ERA in 31 games (15 starts)...He was first in the league in ERA, tied for second in wins, tied for first in WHIP (1.03), third in opponents batting average (.211) and he was tops in the league in winning percentage (.714)...Joseph was 0-4 with a 2.31 ERA and 17 saves for Lynchburg...At the time of his departure he led the team and was second in the Carolina League in the category...His 17 saves with the Hillcats tied him for fourth all-time in team history (Joe Maskivich, 1997)...
A CAT PERSON: C Salvador Perez went 2-for-4 last night with a home run, an RBI and a run scored...In his last three games against the Hillcats he is 8-for-12 (.667) with four homers, ten RBI and four runs scored...Six of his seven home runs this season have come against Lynchburg and he has driven in 13 runs in 12 games against the Cats...
NOT SO GREEN: UTIL Brodie Greene went 1-for-4 and has now hit in 15 of his last 17 games, and over that time he is batting .344 (22-for-64) with two doubles, a triple, six RBI and 14 runs scored...Greene made his professional debut with the Hillcats in June after he was taken in the fourth round of this year's draft out of Texas A&M...He is now batting .281 with a home run, 19 RBI and 34 runs scored in 62 games...Also, OF Ryan LaMarre made his Advanced-A debut Wednesday night and went a combined 2-for-5 with two walks and a run scored...In the bottom of the sixth inning he doubled, hustled to third on a fielder's choice and scored the game winning run...The former Michigan Wolverine was a second round selection of the Reds in this year's draft...In 60 games with the Dragons he hit .282 with five home runs and 29 RBI...His final season at U of M, he batted .419 with five home runs and 40 RBI in 36 games as a junior...Friday night he drove in his first two runs as a Hillcat and last night he knocked his first long ball with Lynchburg...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: LHP Will Smith was acquired by the Royals in a trade with the Angels earlier this season...The Angels drafted him in the seventh round of the 2008 draft out of high school in Georgia...That same year he made his professional debut with Rookie Orem and went 8-2 with a 3.08 ERA in 16 games (14 starts) with the Owels...Last season he pitched for full season Low-A Cedar Rapids and went 10-5 with a 3.76 ERA in 20 games (19 starts)...He began this season with Advanced-A Rancho Cucamonga and was 2-2 with a 4.58 ERA in six starts before he went up to Triple-A to pitch for Salt Lake...With the Bees Smith was 2-4 with a 5.60 ERA in nine starts before heading to Double-A to pitch for the Arkansas Travelers...While there he posted a 1-2 mark with a 7.23 ERA in four starts before getting shipped to the Royals organization and to Wilmington...For the Blue Rocks he has gone 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA in six starts in the Carolina League...Tonight will be his first start against Lynchburg...
Carolina League Stories from August 29, 2010
- Puckett Powers Lynchburg Past Rocks - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Cats Walk-Off Winners in Final Home Game - Hill City Howlers
- Heartbreaker Deals Big Blow to Pelicans - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Garcia's Single in 13th Sweeps Away Pelicans - Winston-Salem Dash
- Indians Explode and Eviscerate Sox 15-2 - Salem RidgeYaks
- Bizarre Finale Ends with a Walk-Off - Frederick Keys
- Hit Batter in Ninth Costs Nats Series Sweep - Potomac Nationals
- Kinston Slaps Sox 15-2 - Kinston Indians
- Hillcats Even Series With Wilmington, Prepare for Sunday - Hill City Howlers
- Blue Rocks Set for Sunday Versus Lynchburg - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes - Winston-Salem Dash
- Nationals win third straight game - Potomac Nationals
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