Hillcats Pounce on Dash Early, Take Series Opener
July 10, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Winston-Salem Dash News Release
Winston-Salem, NC - Lynchburg jumped out to a 9-0 lead after three innings and cruised to a 12-6 win over Winston-Salem on Friday night at Wake Forest Baseball Park. Chase d' Arnaud smacked a grand slam, while Jordy Mercer and Jose De Los Santos each tallied three hits to help the Hillcats take the opener of this three-game series.
The Hillcats pushed a run across in the first inning when Alex Presley and Jordy Mercer connected on back-to-back doubles off Justin Edwards to take a 1-0 lead. Lynchburg tacked on three more runs in the second inning as Jared Keel and De Los Santos collected RBI doubles. Later in the inning, De Los Santos crossed the plate on a double-steal to put the Hillcats in front 4-0.
Things did not get any better for Edwards in the third inning as De Los Santos collected another RBI with a single that plated Kris Watts. Edwards loaded the bases before being pulled in favor of Dash reliever Wander Perez. Chase d' Arnaud greeted the new hurler with a towering grand slam to extend Lynchburg's advantage to 9-0.
Edwards (2-1) only last 2.1 innings and was battered for eight runs on nine hits to suffer his first Carolina League loss. In his two starts at Wake Forest Baseball Park, the southpaw is 0-1 and has surrendered 16 runs (13 earned) on 16 hits in 6.1 innings on the mound.
The Dash offense came to life in the third inning as first baseman Jimmy Gallagher floated a two-out RBI single off Matt McSwain to put Winston-Salem on the board. The Dash would add four more runs in the fourth inning as left fielder Tyler Kuhn and catcher John Curtis registered back-to-back RBI singles and second baseman Dale Mollenhauer and shortstop Greg Paiml followed with consecutive run-scoring groundouts to bring Winston-Salem within 9-5.
The Dash tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth inning when designated hitter Seth Loman smacked a one-out double. One batter later, Kuhn lofted a fly ball to left field that Jared Keel lost in the lights. It dropped for an RBI double and brought Winston-Salem within three.
Hillcats reliever Harrison Bishop put a halt to the Dash rally as he took over for McSwain and tossed two perfect innings with three strikeouts. Lynchburg's bats also returned in the top of the eighth inning as Presley collected an RBI single and Matt Hague smacked a two-run home run off Miguel Socolovich to give the Hillcats a 12-6 cushion.
McSwain (8-4) was the beneficiary of the high-powered Hillcats offense as he worked five innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits but still garnered the win. He also tied former Dash starting pitcher Charlie Shirek for the league-lead in wins with eight. Shirek was promoted to Double-A Birmingham on June 9 where he is 3-2 with a 2.33 ERA in six starts.
The Dash and Hillcats will meet up in game two of this three-game series on Saturday night at Wake Forest Baseball Park. Winston-Salem will send RHP Gregory Infante (0-0, 3.60) to the mound, while Lynchburg will counter with LHP Chi-Hung Cheng (6-3, 3.76). The first pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Carolina League Stories from July 10, 2009
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