CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats Game Notes July 23rd

July 23, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


Lynchburg evened the three-game set with Potomac last night with a 6-3 win at City Stadium...The Hillcats are now 2-3 on their current homestand...Tonight they play the rubber match and final game of their series with Potomac and play the last contest of their six-game homestand...The Cats are 4-3 in rubber matches this season...

VS. POTOMAC: The Hillcats are 9-7 against the Nationals this season and are 6-3 at home...Last season the two teams split the season series 10-10 and the P-Nats were just one of two teams the Cats had a .500 record or better against last year...Lynchburg won the final five games against each other last season...In the all-time series Lynchburg has the edge 151-142 and they are 82-69 at City Stadium...The Hillcats had won 12 of the last 15 games between these two teams before dropping three out of four at Pfitzner Stadium last week...Potomac is a half ahead of Lynchburg for the best overall record in the Carolina League...

OLD DOMINION: This series will complete a stretch of 10 straight games against opponent inside the state of Virginia...Seven of those ten contest against Potomac and three games at home against Salem...Lynchburg, Potomac and Salem are the only three teams from VA in the eight team Carolina League...Lynchburg played in the Virginia league for 12 seasons, most recently in 1942...

EXTRA EXTRA: Last night Lynchburg smacked eight extra-base hits and 16 hits overall in their victory last night...Six of those extra-base knocks were doubles and two were triples...INF Jordy Mercer hit two of the two-baggers and has reclaimed the league lead in doubles with 27 on the season...The Hillcats lead the Carolina League with their 32 triples this season with OF Alex Presley leading the league (8) and UTIL Jose De Los Santos tied for fourth (5) in the circuit...

THE REPLACEMENTS: UTIL Erik Huber, C Eric Fryer and UTIL Eddie Prasch are are all helping fill-in for the absence of UTIL Jamie Romak, C Kris Watts and INF Chase d'Arnaud...Last night they went a combined 8-for-12 with two doubles, a triple, three RBI and four runs scored...Huber has hit in all four games as a Hillcats since his promotion from Low-A West Virginia and is 7-for-16 (.438) with three doubles, six RBI and three runs scored thus far...Fryer has hit in five straight games and is 6-for-18 (.333) over that time with two double, two RBI and three runs scored...Prasch had his first multi-hit game since September 1st, 2008 (the last game of last season) last night going 3-for-4 with a double, a triple, two RBI and two runs scored and he has now driven in five runs in his last five games played...

PESKY P-NATS: RHP Ronald Uviedo makes his fourth start of the season against Potomac tonight...Thus far this season he is 0-3 with a 4.32 ERA (eight earned runs in 16 and 2/3 innings) versus the Nationals...Against the rest of the league Uviedo is 5-0 with a 2.81 ERA (16 earned runs in 51 and 1/3 innings)...Tonight is his first start with Lynchburg since June 17th at Myrtle Beach (placed on the Disabled List on June 19th)...He has made three recent starts with the GCL Pirates and went 0-1 with a 3.24 ERA (three earned runs in eight and 1/3 innings) for the Baby Bucs...

SWELL SEASON: RHP R.J. Rodriguez notched his 18th save of the season last night by tossing a scoreless ninth inning...He leads the CL in that category and still only has one blown save on the season...He allowed two runs in his one blown save on July 2nd, those are the only two earned runs he has allowed in his last 21 appearances...Over that time he has lowered his earned run average from 4.70 to .248 and has walked only eight batters in those 22 innings after walking 11 his first 14 and 1/3 innings this season...July 2nd was also the only time this season he has allowed a home run and batters in the CL are hitting just .205 against the All-Star closer...

GAME WINNERS: OF Ciro Rosero collected his second game-winning hit against Potomac in the last week a night ago with his RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning...Last Thursday he hit the game-winning two-run double in a four-run sixth inning at Pfitzner Stadium in the Hillcats 7-5 win...Those are the last two games he has started for the Cats...

DE LOS RIDING HIGH: UTIL Jose De Los Santos went 1-for-5 last night a triple and an RBI...He has hit in 13 of his last 15 games and over that time he is batting .371 (23-for-62) with 10 runs scored and eight stolen bases...He has raised his average from .214 to .246 during that stretch...In 16 games against Potomac this season De Los Santos has hit .299 (20-for-67) with 14 runs scored and ten stolen bases in 11 tries...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Hassan Pena was selected by Washington in the 13th round of the 2006 draft out of Palm Beach Community Collge...He made his professional debut with Short-Season Low-A Vermont in 2007 and went 4-5 with a 4.25 ERA in 13 starts for the Lake Monsters...Last year he began the season with full-season Low-A Hagerstown and had a 2-2 mark with a 2.08 ERA with the Suns before earning a promotion to Advanced-A...Pena finished the season with Potomac and in five starts he was 2-2 with a 4.15 ERA for the P-Nats...This season he started the season with the GCL Nationals and went 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA in two starts before heading to Hagerstown where he made three start and went 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA...He did make one start against Lynchburg last season and he took a no-decision while allowing four runs (three earned) in four and 1/3 innings of action at City Stadium on August 4th...

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Carolina League Stories from July 23, 2009


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