CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

Published on May 7, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (15-10) vs. MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS (9-16)

May 7th, 2009 -- 6:05 PM

Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium

Game Two: RHP Matt McSwain (1-1, 5.57) vs. LHP Jeff Locke (1-1, 3.12)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg won on Monday night 4-0 over Myrtle Beach in the opening game of a four-game series at City Stadium...Tuesday night's game was rained out and last night's contest was suspended after three innings of play with the score tied at three...The Hillcats are now tied with Potomac for first place in the Northern Division and tied for the best record in the Carolina League...Tonight is the conclusion of game two and game three of a series that was originally scheduled for four games with Myrtle Beach...The final game of the series will have to be played at BB&T Coastal Field in a series in June...

VS. MYRTLE BEACH: The Hillcats opened up their season series against the Pelicans by winning two out of three in their recent set at BB&T Coastal Field...Last year the Pelicans took the season series 13-7 and were 6-4 against the Cats at City Stadium...Lynchburg was 6-6 against the Birds until they lost seven in a row to drop the series...Myrtle Beach has the all-time advantage in the series 110-93 and they are 50-49 in Lynchburg...

SEEING DOUBLE: Lynchburg is at the tail end of 13 games against the same two teams...After seven games on the road at Kinston and Myrtle Beach the Hillcats returned home to play the same two teams at City Stadium...Thus far the Cats are 6-5 against these two Southern Division foes with two games remaining...

BLANKING THE BIRDS: The 4-0 shutout of the Pelicans on Monday night was the first time this season the Hillcats have kept an opponent scoreless...Lynchburg had been shutout once this season...Last year, the Hillcats shutout their opponent four times and were held without a run 11 times...

TONE SETTER: With their victory Monday night Lynchburg improved to 7-1 in series openers this season...Not surprisingly, the Hillcats have won four of their seven series this season and have only lost two...

SLEW OF SOUTHPAWS: The Pelicans opened up the series with the Hillcats on Monday night by putting LHP Richard Sullivan on the mound...Myrtle Beach will pitch a lefty in all three games of this series...Lynchburg has now seen a left-handed starter in nine of their last 12 games...After they face a southpaw in the first game of their series at Salem on Friday, the Cats will have faced a lefty starter in 12 out of 15 games...Lynchburg also has their share of lefty starters, as three of their starting five are southpaws and all three of them are slated to throw in this four-game series...

CHENG A LUCKY CHARM: Every time LHP Chi-Hung Cheng has appeared in a game this season the Hillcats have won...The lefty has pitched six times and has made five starts...Monday night was his second straight start against Myrtle Beach and he won both of those outings...In those two stints Cheng pitched 11 innings and allowed just two runs...

SOCKING SAK: 1B Kent Sakamoto went 2-for-3 on Monday night with an RBI double and a two-run home run...His two-bagger gave Lynchburg a 1-0 lead and his two-run dinger finished the scoring in the Hillcats 4-0 win...In this homestand he has gone 4-for-10 with a double, three home runs and six RBI...Entering this seven-game stretch at home Sakamoto had not collected an extra-base hit all season...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHERS: LHP Jeff Locke will start game two for the Birds and he was selected in the second round (51st overall) of the 2006 draft by the Braves out of Kennett high school in Conway, New Hampshire...He made his professional debut with the GCL Braves that year and went 4-3 with a 4.22 ERA in 10 games (five starts)...In 2007 he threw for the Short Season Low-A Danville Braves and posted a 7-1 mark with a 2.66 ERA in 13 games (11 starts)...Last season he advanced to full season ball and played for the Low-A Rome Braves...He had a 5-12 mark with a 4.06 earned run average in 25 games (24 starts)...This season with Myrtle Beach the lefty has gone 1-1 with a 3.12 ERA in five starts...

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Carolina League Stories from May 7, 2009


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