CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

Published on May 2, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (14-8) vs. KINSTON INDIANS (11-11)

May 2nd, 2009 -- 7:05 PM

Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium

LHP Justin Wilson (2-1, 5.00) vs. LHP Eric Berger (2-1, 1.42)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg opened up their homestand with an 8-3 victory over Kinston at City Stadium last night...The Hillcats are two games up on Potomac for first place in the Northern Division and have the best record in the league...Tonight is the second game of a three-game series with Kinston and a seven-game homestand...

VS. KINSTON: The Hillcats began the season series against the Indians last week at Kinston and split a four-game series at Grainger Stadium...Last season the Indians won the series against the Hillcats 12-7 and were 6-4 against Lynchburg at City Stadium...Lynchburg leads Kinston in the all-time series 141-139 and are 79-58 in the Hill City...

SWEET SOUTHERN COMFORT CARRY ON: The Cats improved to 8-4 against the Southern Division with their 8-3 win a night ago...Lynchburg is now 4-1 versus the South at home and 3-2 against Kinston...

FRIENDLY FALWELL: Last night Lynchburg improved to 9-3 at City Stadium with the series opening win...They have won all three series played thus far on their home turf...Last season the Hillcats went 32-36 at Calvin Falwell Field...

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Of the 14 victories Lynchburg has this season, 10 of them are in come from behind fashion...Last night the Hillcats trailed 3-1 through three and a half innings before they scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead for good...

IF YOU'RE NOT FIRST, YOU'RE LAST: The Cats entered today in first place in the Northern Division with a two-game lead over Potomac...Lynchburg has only been out of first place for one day thus far this year...

FABULOUS FOURTH: The five-run bottom of the fourth inning last night was the second time this season the Hillcats have scored five or more runs in a fourth inning against the Indians this season...Lynchburg scored seven in the top of the seventh last Thursday at Grainger Stadium en route to an 11-7 win...That is the biggest inning of the year so far for the Cats who have scored three or more runs in an inning four times against the K-Tribe in five games this season...The six hits the Hillcats smacked in the fourth inning last night was also the most hits they have had in a frame in 2009...

THREE COUNT: Last night was the first time this season the Hillcats have homered three times in game this year...It was also the first time any Cat has had a multi-homer performance...Lynchburg is still seventh in the Carolina League with 15 dingers on the season...

GIMME MORE: 1B Kent Sakamoto had the first multi-homer performance of his career last night...The home run was the first extra-base hit of the season for the first baseman after he had gone 39 at-bats without a home run to start the season after he finished 2008 without homer in his final 38 at-bats...In all it had been 24 games without a long ball for Sakamoto who smacked 10 dingers last season and drove-in 66 for the Hillcats...He was also second on the team last season with 35 two-baggers...

RIGHT AGAINST THE RIGHTIES: OF Alex Presley has been outstanding this season against right-handers, batting .459 (17-for-37) with four doubles, a triple, a home run and five runs batted in...Unfortunately, he has struggled against left-handers, hitting just .087 (2-for-23) with no RBI...Last night he went 1-for-1 with a double against a righty and 0-for-1 against the left-handed starter for the K-Tribe...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: LHP Eric Berger was selected in the eighth round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft by the Indians out of the University of Arizona...His junior season as a Wildcat the lefty went 8-4 with a 4.34 ERA in 18 games (13 starts)...Later that year he made his professional debut with Mahoning Valley in Short Season Low-A and went 2-0 with a 2.12 ERA in eighth starts...He finished the season with Low-A Lake County where he pitched two games (one start) and had a 2.08 ERA...This season he advanced to High-A Kinston and in four starts has gone 2-1 with a 1.42 ERA...He started against and beat Lynchburg last Sunday at Kinston when he tossed five scoreless frames in the win...That effort helped him earn last week's Carolina League Pitcher of the Week Award...Over that time he made two starts and went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA (10.0 ip, 4 h, 0 r, 0 er, 2 bb, 12 k)...

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Carolina League Stories from May 2, 2009


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