Hillcats Fall to Woodpeckers, 11-7
July 22, 2023 - Carolina League (CarL)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
The Lynchburg Hillcats late-game comeback fell short on Saturday night to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers by a score of 11-7.
The Woodpeckers stormed out to an eight-run lead after two innings of play and never looked back. Twice in the final two innings, the Hillcats brought the tying run to the dish but were unable to bring the runs home.
The game got out of hand in a hurry as Fayetteville drove home three in the first inning thanks to a Luis Encarnacion fielder's choice and John Garcia sacrifice fly. Dauri Lorenzo also tacked on a run of his own with a ground ball single to center.
In the bottom of the first, the Hillcats would get one of the runs back as Robert Lopez would drive home Wuilfredo Antunez to chip into the deficit.
A double steal opened the scoring in the top of the second inning before the floodgates opened. Luis Baez would bring home another run in the on a ground ball to left field. Then, back-to-back two-RBI doubles by Garcia and Lorenzo gave the Woodpeckers a 9-1 lead.
Lynchburg would get two runs back in the third inning. Antunez would pick up an RBI on a sacrifice fly to center that scored a run. Lopez would earn his second RBI of the game with another RBI single.
A little bit later, Fayetteville would get the runs back as Jackson Loftin would pick out a double of his own to score two more. Loftin also tied the Fayetteville franchise record for stolen bases in a season held by Myles Straw with 36.
The game would stay quiet until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Hillcats would start to make a run. Jose Devers would lead off the inning with a solo shot to left center field to give Lynchburg some life. Another run would score on a Jordan Brown single to cut the deficit to six.
Later in the inning, Angel Genao would double home two runs with a single to right field. Lynchburg would load up the bases in both the eighth and the ninth inning with the tying run at the plate but were unable to get any closer as they fell back to .500 in the second half.
Lynchburg will have one more chance to win the series against Fayetteville on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Bank of the James Stadium.
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