CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats Game Notes for July 18

July 18, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (7-14, 52-38) vs. SALEM RED SOX (13-8, 45-45)

July 18th, 2009 -- 6:05 PM

Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium

RHP Bryan Morris (2-4, 6.00) vs. RHP Seth Garrison (5-8, 4.08)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg fell 8-4 to Salem in 15 innings in a marathon game last night at City Stadium...The Hillcats have now lost five out of their last six games...Tonight is the middle-game of a three-game series against Salem and the second contest of a six-game homestand...The Cats finished their 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. SALEM: The Hillcats are 6-5 against the Red Sox in the 460 series this season and are 3-3 at Calvin Falwell Field...Last season the Cats won the season series against Salem, then the Avalanche and an affiliate of the Houston Astros, by a count of 12-8...Salem was the only team in the Carolina League that the Hillcats had a winning record against...In the all-time series Salem leads 150-133, but they are 64-77 in the Hill City...After winning six of the first seven games against Salem this season, Lynchburg has lost four straight against the Sox...

THE WALKING WOUNDED: The Hillcats placed INf Chase d'Arnaud on the Disabled List today (retroactive July 16) with a left thumb sprain...UTIL Erik Huber was called up from Low-A West Virginia to take his place on the roster...He was batting .314 with four home runs and 37 RBI in 69 games for the Power...This a day after they placed all-star C Kris Watts on the Disabled List with left shoulder surgery...On Wednesday OF Jamie Romak was put of the DL as well with a fractured right pinky finger after getting hit with a pitch on Monday night in Potomac...C Joel Collins was activated from the DL to replace Watts and INF Angel Gonzalez has returned to Lynchburg from Double-A Altoona...Gonzalez batted .251 with three home runs, 34 RBI and 19 steals in 91 games with the Cats last season before his promotion to Altoona...This year he was hitting .181 with a homer, 11 RBI and two steals in 61 games with the Curve...

FREE BASEBALL: Last night's game was the longest in both innings and length this season in the Carolina League...The Hillcats had not gone 15 innings since 2007 when they fell at Myrtle Beach 9-8 on July 28th...The longest game in Cats history was on August 15th, 1999 at Myrtle Beach, a 4-2 loss to the Pelicans...Lynchburg fell to 5-3 this season in extra innings and last night was their trip into extra frames with the Red Sox this year...Last season the longest game of the year in both innings and time was against Salem on July 3rd at City Stadium, a 12 inning affair that ended with a controversial walk-off home run by OF Miles Durham that gave Lynchburg a 7-6 win...

SLIPPERY WHEN WET: The Hillcats have had the lead in their last six ball games but have only won one of those contests...They have blown 15 leads on the season in comparison with their 29 comeback victories...They now have let a lead slip away six time in the second half of the season in 21 games after letting go of nine advantages in the first half in 69 games...Prior to last night the Hillcats were 39-1 when entering the ninth inning with a lead...

BACK IN ACTION: 1B Kent Sakamoto went 2-for-5 last night with a double, two runs scored and a walk...The first baseman is now 4-for-8 with a pair of doubles, two RBI, three runs scored and two walks in his first two games played since July 1st against Salem...

THE SECRET OF THE GOO: 1B Matt Hague went 2-for-7 with a double last night and extended his hitting streak to six games...Over that time he is 11-for-27 (.401) with six doubles, three RBI, two runs and two walks...He has hit in 17 of his last 20 games and over that time he has raised his average from .278 to .298...

U-TURN AT THE PLATE: UTIL Jose De Los Santos went 3-for-6 last night with a walk and a stolen base and now has a six-game hitting streak...Over that span he is 9-for-26 (.346) with three runs scored and three stolen bases...Over a longer period he has hit in 10 of his last 11 games and is hitting .409 (18-for-44)...In 11 days his average has gone up 31 points from .214 to .245...Prior to those 11 games, De Los Santos was batting .151 (16-for-106) from June 1st to July 3rd...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Seth Garrison was selected by the Red Sox in the 23rd round of the 2008 amateur entry draft out of Texas Christian University after Boston failed to sign him after drafting him in 2007...His junior season and final year at TCU he went 2-3 with a 4.41 ERA in 17 games (13 starts) for the Horned Frogs...Last year he made his professional debut with Short-Season Low-A Lowell and went 2-1 with a 1.45 ERA and nine saves for the Spinners...This season he skipped a level and began the year with Salem...He has gone 3-7 with a 4.70 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) starts for the Red Sox...In his three starts against Lynchburg this season he is 1-2 with a 6.19 ERA...In his last seven outings (six starts) he is 3-2 with a save and a 1.40 ERA and has earned his lone victory against the Hillcats...

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Carolina League Stories from July 18, 2009


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