CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Hillcats vs. Keys Tonight

Published on July 30, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg lost in walk-off fashion 2-1 to Wilmington yesterday afternoon at City Stadium... The Hillcats were swept in the three-game series against the Blue Rocks and finished their six-game road trip with a record of 2-4...Tonight they begin a brief four-game homestand versus Frederick before heading back onto the road for seven more contests...

VS. FREDERICK: Lynchburg and Frederick begin their sixth and final series against Frederick this evening...The Hillcats are 11-4 against the Keys and they are 4-1 at City Stadium...Last season the Keys won the season series against the Cats 12-7 and went 6-3 in th Hill City...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage 155-134 and they are 79-65 at Calvin Falwell Field...The Hillcats are 4-0-1 in the five series against the Keys this season...The win on Sunday night at Harry Grove Stadium finished Lynchburg's ten games at Frederick this season with a 7-3 mark...The Cats best record against an opponent overall, at home and on the road are all versus the Keys...

RAINING CATS AND KEYS: The final game of the weekend series in Frederick on Sunday night was delayed 35 minutes because of rain in and the middle innings of the contest were played with rain falling on the diamond...This after the series opener was rained out on Friday night and game one of the doubleheader on Saturday night was delayed an hour and 12 minutes in the middle of the third inning...These two teams have had three games postponed due to the weather (one of which was canceled), including the first game of the season between the two on April 20th...Their canceled contest on June 11th was the only scheduled game in the first half of the season the Hillcats did not play...They also had a rain shortened contest at The Grove on June 3rd when Lynchburg earned a 7-6 victory in five and a half innings of play...

NORTHERN LIGHTS: Lynchburg just played a pair of series versus their northern most opponents, Wilmington and Frederick...Before the road trip the Hillcats played a series against Potomac, another Northern Division foe...The series with Frederick that commences this evening makes it four series in a row (13 games) against the Cats divisional opponents...Thus far they are 3-6 over this stretch...

BLUE ROCKED: Yesterday's series finale loss at Wilmington was Lynchburg's fifth straight loss to the Blue Rocks and their eighth in nine games...The Hillcats are 5-11 against the Blue Rocks this season and are 2-8 at Frawley Stadium...Wilmington is the only team in the Carolina League with a winning record versus the Hillcats this season..They lost their last six games played in Delaware...The Cats were shutout three times, lost in walk-off fashion three times and scored just seven runs in their last seven games played at Judy Johnson Field...

SECOND HALF SAK: 1B Kent Sakamoto went 1-for-4 yesterday with a double and has now matched his longest hit streak of the season by hitting in four straight games...In the second half of the season he is batting .315 (17-for-54) with seven doubles, six RBI, and 11 runs scored in 14 games played...He has raised his batting average from .157 to .202 over that time...

WALK THIS WAY: OF Jared Keel again yesterday and has now drawn a free pass in eight straight games (11 walks)...In 67 games played this season Keel has walked a team-leading 58 times...Despite the fact that he missed the month of April with a knee injury, he is third in the Carolina League in base on balls...He is also second in the league in on-base percentage (.412), only behind teammate C Kris Watts (.452)...

HUBER HANDLING HIGH-A: UTIL Erik Huber went 3-for-4 yesterday afternoon to raise his average to .395 (17-for-43) in his time with Lynchburg...In 11 games thus far with the Hillcats he has five doubles, has driven in 11 runs and has scored five times...On Sunday night in Frederick he went 6-for-6 with a double, three RBI and two runs scored...The six hits were a career-high and the most by a Hillcat this season...Four times this season a Cat had collected four hits before Huber's six-hit performance a night ago...Huber had five four-hit games while with West Virginia this season, including three in the month of June that he batted an even .400 in...The six hits matches the most ever by a Hillcat as only two others have had six base knocks in the same ballgame (Justin Martin on May 19th, 2001 and Ray Navarrete on June 9th, 2002)...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: LHP Nate Nery was selected in the 18th round of the 2006 amateur entry draft by the Orioles out of Stetson University...His junior and final season with the Hatters he went 7-5 with a 4.53 ERA in 26 games (12 starts)...That same year he made his professional debut with Short-Season Low-A Aberdeen and posted 3-4 record with a 5.17 earned run average with 14 games (nine starts)...He returned to the IronBirds in 2007 and went 5-4 mark with a 4.08 ERA in 22 games (eight starts)...Last season he advanced to full season Low-A and had a 7-3 record with a 3.39 ERA in 15 starts with Delmarva...He was again with the Shorebirds to start this season and was 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA in five games (four starts) before getting the call-up to Frederick...Since his promotion the lefty has gone 3-4 with a 4.59 earned run average in 15 starts...Nery has made four starts against Lynchburg this season, including his most recent outing, going 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA (seven earned runs in 17 innings)...Two of his four starts against the Hillcats have been cut short, the last one due to a lengthy rain delay last Saturday night and he was ejected from his start on June 3rd at Frederick...

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Carolina League Stories from July 30, 2009


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