Hillcats vs. Keys Tonight
Published on July 31, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg and Frederick were suspended last night in the midst of game one of this four-game series with the Keys in front 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning with one on and nobody out...The Hillcats finished their recent road trip on on Wednesday afternoon and lost in walk-off fashion 2-1 at Wilmington... 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 are scheduled to complete game one, which will be a nine inning contest, and then play another seven inning game after...
VS. FREDERICK: Lynchburg and Frederick are playing their sixth and final series against each other...The Hillcats are 11-4 versus 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 the 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: Last night's suspended game just added to the tally of times these two teams have been adversely affected by the weather this season...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 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: Wednesday'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 on Wednesday 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 walked again on Wednesday afternoon and has now drawn a free pass in eight straight games (11 walks over that time)...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 on Wednesday 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: RHP Sean Gleason was selected by Baltimore in the 20th round of the 2007 draft out of Saint Mary's College...In his lone year with with the Gaels he went 4-8 with a 4.77 ERA in 15 games (14 starts)...He made his professional debut with Rookie Bluefield that same year and went 5-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 14 games (10 starts)...Last season he progressed to full-season Low-A Delmarva and went 12-2 with a 2.63 ERA 30 games (21 starts) with the Shorebirds...This year he has spent time both with Frederick and at the Double-A level with Bowie...With the Baysox he went 3-5 with a 5.96 ERA in 10 starts...In his time with the Keys he has posted a 2-4 mark with a 5.13 ERA in 10 games (nine starts)...His last start is his only outing against Lynchburg, he took the loss and allowed seven runs on 14 hits in four and 1/3 innings of action...
Carolina League Stories from July 31, 2009
- Tribe Get Swept - Kinston Indians
- Cats Split Pair with Keys - Hill City Howlers
- Wilmington Designated Hitter Lifts Blue Crew to Seventh Straight Win - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Four-Game Winning Streak Ends In Evening Loss - Frederick Keys
- Five Straight One-Run Losses for Salem - Salem RidgeYaks
- Pitching Staff Baffles Dash as P-Nats Cruise - Potomac Nationals
- Winston-Salem Bats Silenced by Potomac Pitching - Winston-Salem Dash
- Salem Righthander Bryan Price Among Three Sox Traded for Victor Martinez - Salem RidgeYaks
- Nationals Game Notes - Potomac Nationals
- Hillcats vs. Keys Tonight - Hill City Howlers
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