CarL1 Hill City Howlers

Hillcats vs. Keys Tonight

Published on June 10, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release


THE HILLCATS:

Lynchburg scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning last night to earn a 3-2 series opening victory over Frederick at City Stadium...The win snapped a season-long three game losing streak for the Hillcats...They remain four-games in front of Potomac for first place in the Northern Division...Tonight's game is the second game of a three-game series with Frederick and a brief three-game homestand...These three games are sandwiched between 13 road games for the Green & Gold...

VS. FREDERICK:

Lynchburg and Frederick have already played three series against each other this season with the Hillcats winning eight of the 11 games and three of the four contests at City Stadium...Last season the Keys won the season series against the Cats 12-7 and went 6-3 in the Hill City...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage 150-132 and they are 78-65 at City Stadium...

WELCOME BACK CARDIAC CATS:

The come from behind win last night for the Hillcats was their 20th comeback victor of the season and it was their first since last Monday in Frederick...That was the longest stretch of the season without a rally for a win...The Hillcats were down to their final two outs, threatening to lse four games in a row for the first time all year...

MAGIC NUMBER:

The magic number to clinch the Northern Division is down to 11 for the Hillcats...They lead the division by four games with 13 games left to play...

LIFE AT THE TOP:

Lynchburg currently has the best record in the Carolina League and entered today tied for the fourth most wins in all of minor league baseball with 36 (only behind the High Desert Mavericks, Birmingham Barons and Fort Myers Miracle)...The Hillcats have been in first place almost every day of the first half of the season...

CATCHING THE WORM:

The Hillcats win last night over the Keys moved them to 17-1 in series openers this season...They have now won 16 in a row...Not surprisingly, they are 12-3-2 in series the season and are 7-1 in sets at home this year...

TAKING ON THE NORTH:

This series versus Frederick is Lynchburg's fifth straight series against a Northern Division opponent (16 games)...Thus far, they are 7-4 during that time...Over a longer period, the Hillcats are finishing off a stretch of playing 29 of 32 against their own division...They have a record of 13-8 against the North during that stretch...

REAPPEARING OFFENSE:

Prior to the two runs scored in the bottom of the ninth inning last night, the Hillcats had cored just two runs in their previous 35 innings...They went 14 innings without a run before they scored in the fifth inning last night...Last night was the first time Lynchburg had scored more than one run in a game since last Wednesday (four games)...Despite going 4-3 on the recent road trip, the Hillcats batted just .192 on the trip and averaged just 2.7 runs per game...In the series at Wilmington the hit .147 and averaged just a half a run per contest...

POSITION TO SCORE? In the last five games, Lynchburg is 1-for-18 (.056) when batting with men in scoring position...The only hit they have earned in that situation over that time did not drive in a run...

ALL-STAR PERFORMANCE:

OF Miles Durham who was recently named to the Carolina League All-Star team along with teammate C Kris Watts, went 2-for-4 last night with the game-tying RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning...He was the only Hillcats with more than one hit...Durham now is tied for fourth in the league in doubles (16), tied for third in triples (4) and is third in extra-base hits (26)...He was also recently named the CL Player of the Month for the month of May after batting .333 with six home runs and 21 RBI in 27 games...

TWO TOP TENS:

The First-place Hillcats have added a pair of top ten prospects to their active roster in the last three days...LHP Jeff Locke was added to the list today after being acquired in a trade from the Atlanta Braves last week and he makes his Hillcats debut a night ago, allowing two runs in four innings of work...Locke was rated as the number seven prospect in the Braves system prior to the start of the season by Baseball America...RHP Bryan Morris made his much anticipated Hillcats debut on Sunday afternoon...He was scheduled to start the first Sunday of the season before he suffered from shoulder soreness...He also missed time in Spring Training with a toe injury...These injuries after he missed all of 2007 after having Tommy John surgery...Morris is the fifth ranked prospect in the Pirates organization according to Baseball America...After allowing just one hit and no runs through the first four innings, he allowed four runs on five hits in the fifth inning and was chased from the game in his 2009 and Advanced-A debut...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER:

RHP Kenny Moreland was signed by the Orioles as an undrafted free agent out of Christopher Newport University in 2008...He made his professional debut last season with Bluefield at the Rookie level...He went 6-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 13 starts for the Orioles affiliate in the Appalachian League...He also made one relief appearance with the Keys, allowing two runs in two innings and taking a loss...Tonight he makes his 2009 debut after being called up from Extended Spring Training...This evening is also his first outing against Lynchburg...

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Carolina League Stories from June 10, 2009


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