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CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats Game Notes August 28th

August 28, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


Wilmington completed a four-game sweep of Lynchburg with a 7-2 win on Thursday night at City Stadium...The Hillcats just finished a stretch of 14 out of 17 games at Calvin Falwell Field...They went 6-11 over that time and 2-6 on their recent eight-game homestand...Tonight they begin a three-game series at Winston-Salem and play the first of eight in a row on the road...

VS. WINSTON-SALEM: This season the Hillcats have a 10-7 record against the Dash and are 4-3 at Wake Forest Baseball Park...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage in the series with Winston-Salem 153-142, but they are 57-77 in the Triad...The Cats and the Dash were both first half champions and have secured a spot in the 2009 Carolina League playoffs...

TEMPORARY REMEDY: Lynchburg finished their regular season series with Wilmington last night with their 7-2 loss...The Hillcats went 5-15 against the Blue Rocks this season, 3-7 at City Stadium and 2-8 at Frawley Stadium...Wilmington is the only team in the Carolina League with a winning record versus the Hillcats this year...Lynchburg was 4-3 in the series this year, but the Rocks won 12 out of the next 13 and the last nine games played between the two teams...Since July 25th, the Blue Crew is 25-6 and they currently enjoy a two and a half game lead over Potomac for first place in the hunt for the final playoff spot in the Northern Division...After their win last night, the Rocks have now won six straight and 10 of their last 11 games...If Wilmington grabs the other playoff spot they will meet Lynchburg in the divisional series beginning September 9th at Calvin Falwell Field...

HOME WOES: Lynchburg has lost four in a row and six out of seven at City Stadium...After starting the season 23-7 at Calvin Falwell Field, they have gone 12-24 since...Oddly enough, the Hillcats have won five of their last six contest on the road and they are now sporting a better winning percentage on the road than at home...

NEARLY NO-NO'D: Last night was the second time this season the Hillcats have been no-hit through six innings...OF Jamie Romak broke up the no-hit bid by RHP Alex Caldera in the seventh inning with one out with a bloop double into right-center field...On August 5th in Kinston, RHP Paulo Espino had a no-hitter into the eighth inning until OF Jared Keel hit a two-out home run to bust up the no-no...

FOLDING UNDER PRESSURE: Lynchburg went 5-for-40 (.125) with men in scoring position in the series against Wilmington...In the second half of the season Lynchburg is batting 15 points higher than they did in the first half of the season (.261, .246 in the first) to raise their overall batting average to .253...However, after batting .267 with men in scoring position in the first half, they are hitting just .236 with RISP in the second...

CHANCE TO CLINCH AGAIN: One more win this season will ensure a winning record for the Hillcats in 2009...It would mark the first time since 2005 (78-62) that Lynchburg would post an over .500 record...Prior to this season the Cats have had a winning record four times in their 14 seasons played...They have already secured their sixth playoff appearance since the team began play in 1995...

BACK TO EARTH: LHP Justin Wilson allowed four runs in four innings last night and took his eighth loss of the campaign...Coming into that outing he had allowed just four earned runs in his previous sven starts (0.91 ERA)...He had not allowed more than two runs in an outing in his last nine games (1.32 ERA)...He had also gone five innings or more in nine of his last ten starts prior to last night...Wilson allowed three runs in the third inning, entering that frame he had allowed three runs in his last 40 and 2/3 innings of action...

STARTING TO POP: 1B Matt Hague went 1-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored and extended his current hitting-streak to seven games...It was his second homer of the series...He had gone 39 games and 151 at-bats without a long ball before the set...That was his longest drought of the season and of his career...He went homerless in his first 30 games of the season as well...In his last six games played he is 12-for-28 (.429) with four doubles, two home runs, four RBI and three runs scored...Hague is third in the Carolina League with his .291 batting average...

MIGHTY MERCER: INF Jordy Mercer went 1-for-3 with a walk and has now hit in six straight games...He has hit in 15 of his last 16 games and over that time he is batting .333 (20-for-60) with four doubles, a homer, ten RBI, eight runs scored, seven walks and two stolen bases...He is batting .315 (28-for-89) in August after he hit .226 (26-for-115) in July...Mercer leads the Hillcats with 71 RBI and is second in the league with 34 doubles...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHERS: RHP Dylan Axelrod will start game one and was signed this season by the White Sox after he was released by the Padres...Originally 30th round selection of San Diego in the 2007 draft, he spent last season with full-season Low-A Fort Wayne and Advanced-A Lake Elsinore...With the Wizards in the Midwest League he went 1-1 with a 3.62 ERA in 23 games and with the Storm in the California League he was 2-1 with a 5.29 ERA in 32 relief appearances...This season Axelrod was 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 games pitching for Lake Elsinore before he was released...He pitched two games with full-season Low-A Kannopolis and allowed one run in four and 1/3 innings (2.08 ERA) before coming to Winston-Salem...Axelrod has made three starts for the Dash and has gone 2-1 with a 1.56 ERA...His last start was his only appearance against Lynchburg, going six innings and only allowing two runs to earn the victory last Sunday at City Stadium...

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Carolina League Stories from August 28, 2009


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