Hillcats Game Notes for July 12
July 12, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (6-9, 51-33) @ WINSTON-SALEM DASH (7-8, 45-38)
July 12th, 2009 -- 5:00 PM
Gene Hooks Field @ Wake Forest Baseball Park
LHP Jeff Locke (2-6, 5.02) vs. RHP Jacob Rasner (2-0, 2.84)
THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg blasted two late home runs to rally late and win in ten innings 7-6 at Winston-Salem in the middle-game of a three-game series...Tonight is the final game of a three-game series at Wake Forest Baseball Park and game three of a seven-game road trip...This Hillcats ended a stretch of 14 out of 17 at home on Thursday and went just 6-11 over that time...They have started this trip 2-0 and go for the road series sweep of the Dash tonight...
VS. WINSTON-SALEM: This season the Hillcats have a 8-4 record against the Dash and are 4-2 in Winston-Salem...They met last weekend for three games in a row with Winston-Salem winning two of those match-ups, including the lone game played at Wake Forest Baseball Park...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage in the series with Winston-Salem 151-139, but they are 67-76 in the Triad...The Cats and the Dash were both first half champions and have secured a spot in the 2009 Carolina League playoffs...This series completes a stretch of six out of nine games against Winston-Salem...The Hillcats are the only team in the CL with a winning mark against the first half Southern Division champs...
NAIL BITERS: Six of the 12 games the Hillcats and Dash have played this season have been one-run games...Five of the games have been won in a team's final at-bat, two of them have been walk-off wins and two have gone to extra innings...
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: A night ago Lynchburg hit a home run in the ninth inning off closer Santo Luis and then homered again in the tenth inning to win it...The Hillcats did the same thing against the Dash and Luis earlier this season at Wake Forest Baseball Park...Last night OF Alex Presley hit a solo shot in the ninth inning t o tie the game and OF Jared Keel smacked the game-winning bomb in the tenth...On May 14th the Cats trailed by five runs heading into the eighth inning before scoring one in the eighth and four more in the ninth to tie it before plating the game-winning run in the tenth...OF Maiko Loyola homered off Luis in the ninth inning to tie the game and 1B Matt Hague homered in the tenth to give the Green & Gold the victory...
OUT OF SORTS: Last night Jose De Los Santos played center field for the first time in his career and committed a three-base error that led to an unearned run...In the past two season De Los Santos has played second base, third base and now the outfield for the first time in his career...In the second half of the season, Jordy Mercer has played third base for the first time in his career and Chase d'Arnaud has played second base for the first time...Jamie Romak has returned to the outfield after playing first base all season with Altoona and beginning his career as a third baseman...Eric Fryer is catching again after spending the majority of the season in the outfield this season in the Yankees system...Not surprisingly the Hillcats have committed 17 errors in 15 games in the second half that have led to 22 unearned runs...In the first half Lynchburg committed 47 errors in 69 games that led to just 29 unearned runs and they were tied for the best fielding percentage in the Carolina League...
FINDING MORE WATTAGE: C Kris Watts went 2-for-4 last night with a double, a run scored and a walk...He has now hit in six straight and gone 9-for-19 (.474) with three doubles, three RBI and three runs scored...The all-star catcher hit .444 in April and was still batting .373 on May 23rd, but from then until before this hitting streak started he was hitting .195 (15-for-77)...Watts currently is third in the league with his .316 batting average and is first in the circuit with a .448 on-base percentage...
NO NEED TO PRESS: OF Alex Presley went 1-for-4 last night with a game-tying solo home run in the ninth inning...He has now hit in 10 of his last 11 games and is batting .250 (13-for-52) over that time with two doubles, a triple, two home runs, 10 RBI and six runs scored...Prior to Wednesday night, he had just one home run on April 23rd at Kinston, he now has homered twice in his last four games...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Jacob Rasner was acquired by the White Sox in a trade with the Texas Rangers in 2006...His final season in the Rangers system he went 6-16 with a 5.41 ERA in 27 starts with full season Low-A Clinton...He pitched for Kannapolis the next season in the Sox system and went 7-11 with a 6.73 ERA in 28 starts...Last season he progressed to Advanced-A and went 5-7 with a 3.29 ERA in 29 games (18 starts) with Winston-Salem...This season the former seventh round pick of the Rangers has gone 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in 20 games (eight starts) for the Dash...He allowed two runs in two innings of relief in his only appearance this season against Lynchburg...He has made four career appearances (three starts) against the Hillcats and has gone 1-1 with a 4.73 ERA.
Carolina League Stories from July 12, 2009
- Keys Take Finale - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Winston-Salem Pounds Lynchburg Pitching for 13 Runs and 17 Hits - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Keys Take Rubber Game From Pelicans - Frederick Keys
- Salem Endures Eleventh Shutout of Season, Fourth at Hands of Wilmington - Salem Red Sox
- Long Balls Help Winston-Salem Crush Lynchburg - Winston-Salem Dash
- Potomac Rally Falls Short in Kinston - Potomac Nationals
- KTribe Takes Game, Series From Potomac - Kinston Indians
- Hillcats Game Notes for July 12 - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Dash Game Notes for July 12 - Winston-Salem Dash
- Espinosa in starting lineup for Futures Game - Potomac Nationals
- Nationals Game Notes for July 12 - Potomac Nationals
- Indians Game Notes for July 12 - Kinston Indians
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