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CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats Game Notes for September 5

September 5, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (27-40, 72-64) @ SALEM RED SOX (33-34, 65-71) September 5th, 2009 -- 6:05 PM Lewis-Gale Field @ Salem Memorial Ballpark RHP Nate Adcock (3-2, 6.16) vs. RHP Dave McKae (2-6, 4.43)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg fell 3-2 last night at Salem in game one of four in a row against the Red Sox...Tonight the Hillcats play the second against Salem and the final contest of eight in a row on the road...Thus far they are 3-4 over this stretch...

VS. SALEM: The Hillcats are 9-8 against the Red Sox in the 460 series this season and are 5-4 at Memorial Ballpark...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 last season...In the all-time series Salem leads 153-136, and they are 88-58 at home...

QUITE THE CATCH: Today Lynchburg added C Tony Sanchez and OF Starling Marte to their roster, both promoted from Low-A West Virginia...Sanchez was the fourth overall pick by the Pirates out of Boston College in this year's draft and was batting .316 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 46 RBI in 41 games played for the Power...Marte was signed in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic and was hitting .312 with nine doubles, five triples, three homers, 34 RBI, 41 runs scored and 24 steals in 54 games played with the Pirates Low-A affiliate...Sanchez is the third fourth overall pick and the fourth top five overall pick to play for Lynchburg in the last two seasons (Pedro Alvarez, Daniel Moskos and Brad Lincoln)...

HELD HITLESS: After scoring a pair of runs on two hits through the first two innings, Lynchburg went hitless from the third inning through the eighth last night...Their two runs in the top of the second gave the Hillcats a 2-0 advantage, but Salem scored three unanswered runs to earn the win...The Cats only mustered four hits on the night...

FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM: Over the last seven road games Lynchburg has collected eight sacrifice hits (four sacrifice flies and four bunts)...All four of the sac flies have come off the bat of INF Jordy Mercer, who leads the team with 12 sac flies and 15 sac hits on the season...The Hillcats have 95 sacrifice hits on the season, second most in the Carolina League...Their 50 sac flies are the most in the circuit...

BATTERED AND BRUISED: Last night the Hillcats were hit by a pitch on three separate occasions and have now been plunked six times in the last two games...On the season Lynchburg has been hit by a pitch 94 times, the most of any team in the Carolina League...The next closest in the circuit is Winston-Salem with 67...

PLAYING WITH FIRE: RHP Bryan Morris allowed three earned runs in six and 2/3 innings last night in taking the tough luck loss at Salem...He matched the longest outing of his career and it was his fourth quality start of the season (second against Salem)...After tossing a 1-2-3 first inning, Morris allowed a hit in every inning after that he worked in and the Red Sox 10 hits against him on the night were the most he has allowed in his career...

PUT IN A PICKLE: RHP Harrison Bishop inherited two runners last night and stranded them both as he threw an inning and 1/3 scoreless...It was just the third time this season the priority reliever has entered the game in the middle of an inning...Prior to last night the right-hander had inherited three runners and none of them scored...

DRIVING ‘EM IN: INF Jordy Mercer went 1-for-3 on Thursday night with two RBI...He has driven in 20 runs in his last 21 games played and brought home 10 in his last six...He has hit in 18 of his last 21 games and over that time he is batting .309 (25-for-81) with four doubles, three homers, 20 RBI, 10 runs scored, seven walks and two stolen bases...He is batting .300 (33-for-110) in August after he hit .226 (26-for-115) in July...Mercer leads the Hillcats and is fifth in the Carolina League with 81 RBI, and he is second in the league with 34 doubles...

BACK-TO-BACK JACKS: The Hillcats hit back-to-back home runs for the first time this season in their five-run top of the fifth inning on Thursday night...C Kris Watts hit the first of the two big flies, and 1B Kent Sakamoto hit the second...It was the first homer for Sakamoto since June 14th (128 at-bats)...On Saturday night at Winston-Salem, the Cats hit two home runs in the same inning for the first time all season...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Dave McKae was signed by the Red Sox as a minor league free agent after spending the first five years of his career in the San Fransisco Giants organization...He began his professional career in 2005 at the Short-Season Low-A level with Salem-Keizer and he went 3-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 19 games (four starts) for the Volcanoes...In 2006 he threw at the full season Low-A level with Augusta and posted an 8-2 record with a 1.66 ERA in 19 games (15 starts) for the GreenJackets...The next year he advanced to High-A level to San Jose and went 5-1 with 1.93 ERA in 11 starts for the Giants before he was promoted to Double-A...In 17 starts with the Connecticut Defenders McKae went 6-4 with 4.24 ERA...Last season he returned to the Defenders and had an 8-9 record with a 4.57 ERA...This season he has put up a 2-6 mark with a 4.43 ERA in 19 games (15 starts) starts with Salem...He has pitched four games (three starts) against Lynchburg and he is 0-2 with a 7.11 ERA...

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