CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats Lose Late Lead Again in Series Opener

Published on July 29, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


For the second straight night Lynchburg could not hold on to an advantage, and fell 9-8 at Salem in the series opener on Thursday night. The Hillcats were up 6-1 and still led 8-5 into the seventh inning before falling at Memorial Ballpark.

Lynchburg got on the board first with a pair of runs in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. Chris Richburg started the scoring with an RBI single and another run came in on the double play play Brodie Greene knocked into. Salem plated a run in the bottom of the second inning on a double play of their own. Dan Butler lined out to center and Alex Hassan was doubled off first base. After it was initially ruled Will Middlebrooks did not score, the call was reversed after the inning saying he did in fact tag up and score in time to get the Red Sox on the board.

In the third inning the Hillcats plated four runs to take a 6-1 advantage. Cody Puckett blasted a two-run home run down the left field line to start the scoring in the frame. On the very next pitch Neftali Soto gave the Hillcats their first back-to-back home runs on the season with a solo shot out to left. The next pitch after that from Red Sox starter Brock Huntzinger went behind Denis Phipps and he slowly walked out towards the mound. The benches cleared on to the diamond but the situation was quickly defused. After Phipps flew out to the wall in the right center he had some words with Huntzinger and he was ejected from the contest. The next pitch Chris Richburg belted way over the wall in left field to give the Cats three home runs in four batters and chase Huntzinger from the game.

The Red Sox wasted little time responding as they plated four of their own in the bottom of the fourth to pull within one at 6-5. Mitch Dening singled in the first run, Peter Hissey hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run and Alex Hassan doubled in run as well. The Hillcats tacked on to their advantage with a run in the top of the fourth and another in the sixth to make it an 8-5 game. Puckett singled in the run in the fourth and doubled in the other run in the sixth to give him four RBI on the night. That ties the most runs driven in by a Hillcat this season.

In the bottom of the seventh inning Cats reliever Nick Christiani retired the first two batters he faced, but the next five would reach in the frame and the Red Sox plated four runs to turn a three-run deficit into a one-run lead. Will Middlebrooks, Hassan, Tim Fereowicz and Don Butler all came up with two-out RBI base hits in the frame.

The loss went to Christiani for Lynchburg (14-19, 43-60). It marked the biggest blown lead (5) of the season for Lynchburg who lost a lead for the second straight night. Christiani is now 0-1 with a 11.37 ERA (eight earned runs in six and 1/3 innings) versus Salem. The win went to reliever Will Latimer (5-3) and the save to Pat Ryan (2) for Salem (17-16, 59-44). The middle-game of the three-game series is on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at Memorial Ballpark. Right-hander Jordan Hotchkiss (7-4, 2.45) will get the start for the Cats opposite righty Michael Lee (7-4, 4.03) for the Sox.

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Carolina League Stories from July 29, 2010


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