CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

Published on May 8, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (17-10) @ SALEM RED SOX (15-13)

May 8th, 2009 -- 7:05 PM

Lewis-Gale Field @ Salem Memorial Ballpark

LHP Justin Wilson (2-2, 5.32) vs. LHP Jose Capellan (2-0, 3.75)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg won both ends of an extended doubleheader last night over Myrtle Beach at City Stadium...The Hillcats won game one 6-5 and game two 5-4...The first game began on Wednesday night and was suspended after three innings of play due to the rain...The Hillcats are still tied with Potomac for first place in the Northern Division and tied for the best record in the Carolina League...Tonight is the first of six games in a row on the road for the Cats and game one of a three-game set with Salem...

VS. SALEM: Last season Lynchburg won the season series against Salem, then the Avalanche and an affiliate of the Houston Astros, by a count of 12-8, but they were 4-6 on the road against the Av's...Salem was the only team in the Carolina League that the Hillcats had a winning record against...The Hillcats swept a four-game series to finish off the 2008 campaign...In the all-time series Salem leads 127-145 and they are 84-53 on their home field against Lynchburg...Salem, now a Red Sox affiliate that holds the same nickname, is the last team in the CL that Lynchburg has not played this year...

CARDIAC CATS: Last night the Hillcats won both games with late inning rallies...They trailed by two in extra-innings before scoring three int he bottom of the eighth inning to win 6-5 in game one...In game two they scored three runs in their final plate appearance in the sixth to earn a 5-4 victory...Lynchburg has now 12 of their 17 victories in come from behind fashion...Seven of their last nine wins have been comebacks...

SWEET SWEEP: Lynchburg won both games last night to sweep the double dip and sweep the rain shortened three-game series...It marks the first series sweep of the season for the Hillcats...The also improved to 4-1 in series at City Stadium this season, bouncing back from their first series defeat at the hands of the Kinston Indians...

BIRD CATCHERS: After the three-game series sweep of the Pelicans, the Hillcats improved to 5-1 against Myrtle Beach...The Cats took two out of three from the Birds last week at BB&T Coastal Field on the Grand Strand prior to the sweep at City Stadium...

THE CLOSER, THE BETTER: With a pair of one-run victories a night ago, Lynchburg improved to 8-1 in one-run games this season...They are also 12-5 in games decided by three runs or less...Game one last night was only the second extra-innings contest of the year for the Hillcats, who improved to 1-1 with the win...

SLEW OF SOUTHPAWS: The Pelicans threw a left-handed starter at the Hillcats in all three games of their series...Lynchburg has now seen a left-handed starter in 11 of their last 14 games...After they face a southpaw in the first game of this series tonight, 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 two of them are slated to throw in this three-game series...

DOUBLE DOSE OF DE LOS: INF Jose De Los Santos went a combined 5-for-8 with two RBI, three runs, and a stolen base in the doubleheader last night...He drove-in the game tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning of game one, with the Hillcats down to their final out...In game two, he brought-in the game winning run with an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning...

SOCKING SAK: 1B Kent Sakamoto went 3-for-6 with two RBI, a run and a walk during the doubleheader that concluded last night... During the past homestand he went 7-for-16 with a double, three home runs, eight RBI and a run...Entering that stretch at home Sakamoto had not collected an extra-base hit all season...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHERS: LHP Jose Capellan was signed as a free agent by the Red Sox in 2003 out of the Dominican Republic...Last season he pitched for Low-A Greenville in the South Atlantic League...The lefty went 3-6 with a 4.65 ERA in 15 starts for the Drive...This season he has made five starts for Salem and gone 2-0 with a 3.75 earned run average for the Red Sox...

Check out the Lynchburg Hillcats Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Carolina League Stories from May 8, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central