Hillcats game notes
Published on July 6, 2008 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (10-6, 39-47) vs. FREDERICK KEYS (5-11, 39-47)
July 6th, 2008 -- 6:05 PM
Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium
RHP Michael Crotta (7-5, 5.15) vs. RHP Tim Bascom (2-2, 5.18)
THE HILLCATS: Last night Lynchburg completed extended their season-high win streak to six games with a 7-5 comeback victory over Frederick...Tonight they play game two of a three-game series with Frederick and play game five of a nine-game homestand...
VS. FREDERICK: The Keys are 7-4 against the Hillcats this season and 2-2 in the Hill City...The Cats have the all-time advantage 142-124, and are 74-61 at home...
HEATING UP: They have now won six straight games for the first time all season, won ten out of their last 12, and their series sweep of Salem (their first sweep of the season) has given them four straight series wins for the first time all year...The Cats have not won seven in a row since they won eight consecutive ballgames in 2005...If the playoffs were to start today the Hillcats would be in, as they are currently tied for first with the first half champion Potomac Nationals...
TIED FOR TOPS: After the Hillcats 7-5 win last night Lynchburg is tied for first place in the Northern Division with Potomac...It is the first time since June 30th of last season when they were tied a top the division with a second half record of 7-3...The last time the Cats had sole possession of first place was June 13th of last year in the first half of last season...
COMEBACK CATS: Last night Lynchburg mounted their biggest comeback of the season, as they came from five runs down to top Frederick 7-5...The Hillcats scored seven unanswered runs, including three in the bottom of the eighth to pull out the win...Over this recent stretch in which the Cats have won 10 out of 12, they have come back five times...They matched their biggest comeback of the season two times by coming from four runs down against Myrtle Beach (6/21) and Winston-Salem (6/28), came from behind in the ninth inning for just the second time all season against Salem (Thursday night) and then rallied again last night...Lynchburg had nine come from behind victories in 74 games before their five recent rallies...
GOING STREAKING: 3B Jim Negrych went 1-for-2 last night with an RBI and a run to extend his current hitting streak to 17 games...Negrych now has the longest hit streak of the season by a Hillcat, has tied Lee Evans (2000) for the longest streak ever by a Hillcat and is just one game shy of the longest streak in the Carolina League this season...Over this stretch he has gone 28-for-64 (.438) with ten doubles, a triple, 14 runs scored and seven RBI...
WHICH CROTTA? RHP Michael Crotta has been a bit all or nothing this season...He has had one start in which he was perfect through six innings and another in which he allowed 10 runs and recorded just one inning of work...In his best four starts of the season he is a combined 3-0 with 0.38 ERA (one earned run in 23 and 2/3 innings)...In his worst four starts of the season he is a combined 0-3 with a 16.34 ERA (23 earned runs in 12 and 2/3 innings)...Three of those rocky outings though came in a row (5/13-5/24) and if you take out the 10 runs allowed performance, he has been very good over his other last four starts, going 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA (five earned runs in 24 and 2/3 innings pitched)...Crotta's last outing was his best of the season, tossing seven scoreless innings and allowing just three hits in picking up his seventh win of the campaign...
LAYING ONE DOWN: In the last three games the Hillcats have laid down nine bunts...They have four bunt singles, three sacrifice bunts, a failed sacrifice bunt and a failed attempt at a bunt hit...They also failed in trying to execute a suicide squeeze bunt that wasn't laid down...The Cats have bunted in five of the seven innings they have scored in over that stretch, including a pair of bunts in the eighth inning last night that aided the three runs that scored...Lynchburg has 34 sacrifice bunts this season in 86 games after 27 in 137 contests last year...
GREEN LIGHT TO GO: In the last three games Lynchburg has attempted 14 steals and stole 10 of them successfully...That includes the fourth two-steal game of the season for INF Angel Gonzalez last night and the first three-steal game of the year by INF Jose De Los Santos on Friday night....The three steals in a game was a career high for De Los Santos...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Tim Bascom was taken in the fourth round of the 2007 draft by the Orioles and made pitched with three teams in '07, finishing the season with Frederick...He went a combined 5-3 with a 3.24 ERA in 17 games (15 starts) between Bradenton, Delmarva and Frederick...Bascom spent the majority of his time in Delmarva and went 3-3 with a 3.74 ERA in 12 starts...With the Keys he went 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two games (one start)...This season he has gone 2-2 with a 5.18 ERA in eight starts since coming off the Disabled List on May 22nd...Tonight will be his first appearance against Lynchburg...
Carolina League Stories from July 6, 2008
- Rocks Rally For Lone Lead In Ninth, Win 3-2 - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Blue Rocks Square Series With 3-2 Win Over Birds - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Snyder, Tripp Have Three Hits Apiece as Keys Even Series - Frederick Keys
- Quick storm postpones Nats, Avalanche - Potomac Nationals
- Quick storm postpones Nats, Avalanche - Potomac Nationals
- Salem and Potomac postponed - Salem RidgeYaks
- K-Tribe game postponed because of rain - Kinston Indians
- Warthogs and K-Tribe Rained Out on Sunday - Winston-Salem Dash
- Pelicans Game Notes - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Hillcats game notes - Hill City Howlers
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