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CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Hillcats Surge Early, Hold off Pelicans Late

July 2, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


LYNCHBURG, VA - Facing the first game of their longest road trip since 2009, the Pelicans couldn't overcome some former Pelicans and early struggles by starter Miguel De Los Santos as a late Myrtle Beach rally fell short, and the Birds dropped their first of four with the Lynchburg Hillcats 5-4 Saturday night at Lynchburg City Stadium.

Kicking off a ten-game, three-city Carolina League tour, their first such trip since May 29-June 7, 2009, the Pelicans fell behind early as the much-anticipated debut of left-hander Miguel De Los Santos got off on the wrong foot for Myrtle Beach. A member of the Texas Rangers' 40-man roster and Baseball America's tenth-best Rangers prospect entering 2011, De Los Santos struggled in his start to the season at Double-A Frisco before injuries and inconsistency sent him to the Arizona League for an appearance in June. The southpaw made his Carolina League debut with two sparkling innings of hitless work against the Kinston Indians in which he struck out four on June 29, but Saturday night was much different from the outset.

The first three Hillcats to the plate against De Los Santos reached and later scored as Lynchburg capitalized on a walk, a bloop, and two infield singles to take a 2-0 advantage. With two outs and runners at first and second, former Pelican Shawn McGill smoked a two-run double to the gap in left-center to score a pair and extend the early lead to 4-0.

De Los Santos (0-1) settled down after that but only worked through the fourth, striking out five on his day while issuing a pair of walks. He was charged with all four Lynchburg runs earned and allowed five total hits in his four frames.

The Pelicans' offense couldn't string together anything resembling a rally against Lynchburg starter Chris Masters who dominated through the first six innings of his day. Masters allowed just two hits through his first six frames, both to leadoff man Andres James, and faced only one man over the minimum thanks to a first-inning double-play ball.

Lynchburg got an insurance run that turned into the game-winner against Pelicans reliever Kennil Gomez in the bottom half of the sixth, though at the time, it just looked like another tally on the way to a rout. McGill led off the inning with a double to center field and was sacrificed to third by Barrett Kleinknecht one batter before McGill's fellow former Pelican L.V. Ware executed a suicide squeeze bunt to the right side of the infield to plate McGill and make it a 5-0 Hillcats lead.

Myrtle Beach finally got to Masters beginning in the seventh. Jared Prince launched his second homer in as many nights out to left field to get the Pelicans on the board, and in the eighth, Myrtle Beach led off with three straight singles to chase Masters and load the bases. Against reliever Eliecer Cardenas, Prince ripped a two-run single to cut the deficit to 5-3, and a wild pitch brought another Pelicans run across to make it a one-run game at 5-4. Cardenas worked out of the eighth with no further damage, however, and southpaw reliever Ryan Buchter worked around a leadoff single by Zach Zaneski and one-out knock by Jared Hoying to put the tying run in scoring position in the ninth for the save. Buchter (S, 6) preserved the win for Masters (5-3) who ended up charged with four earned runs over seven-plus innings of work in the victory.

Sunday night, the Pelicans and Hillcats hook up for game two of this four-game set as the Birds send righty Wilfredo Boscan (2-4, 4.50) against lefty Dimaster Delgado (4-5, 4.53) at 6:05. Tickets for all Pelicans home games can be purchased by visiting the BB&T Coastal Field box office, the Tickets page at MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, or by calling (843)918-6000 or (877)918-TIXX.

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