Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
Published on July 2, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (2-5, 47-29) @ WINSTON-SALEM DASH (3-4, 41-34)
July 2nd, 2009 -- 7:00 PM
Gene Hooks Field @ Wake Forest Baseball Park
LHP Justin Wilson (3-5, 6.58) vs. RHP Anthony Carter (6-4, 4.09)
THE HILLCATS: Salem completed a series sweep of Lynchburg last night at City Stadium with a 5-4 win to finish the brief two-game series...It marked the first time this season the Hillcat have been swept and gave them their third straight loss...The Cats are now three games under .500 for the first time all season after they weren't under .500 the entire first half...Tonight is the lone game to be played in Winston-Salem against the Dash before returning to Lynchburg for three more games with the Southern Division first half champions at Calvin Falwell Field...
VS. WINSTON-SALEM: The Hillcats are 5-2 versus the Dash this season and took two out of three from them in Winston-Salem in mid-May...Last season Winston-Salem (then the Warthogs) won the season series 14-6 and were 8-2 at Ernie Shore Field...Lynchburg has the all-time advantage 148-137, but they are 65-75 in the Triad...This is the first match-up between the two since they both won their respective divisions in the first half of the season in the Carolina League...
THE MONTH OF JUNE: Lynchburg went 15-11 in the month of June...The pitching staff posted an impressive 3.74 ERA and is currently second in the Carolina League with a 3.86 ERA on the season...The offense though mustered just a .219 batting average and has dropped to last in the circuit on the year with their .244 clip...
CITY STADIUM SLIDE: After starting their home schedule with a record of 23-7 at Calvin Falwell Field, the Hillcats have gone 1-6 since then...Last night was the first time at home or on the road the Hillcats have been swept...The Cats began the season 8-1 in series in the Hill City and have gone 0-2-1 since with back-to-back series losses...
WEIRD, WILD, WACKY STUFF: The Cats completed their second straight two-game series with the Red Sox last night in Lynchburg, after playing a two-game set in Salem with the Sox on Sunday and Monday...Tonight they take on Winston-Salem at Wake Forest Baseball Park and return home after tonight's contest for a three-game series at City Stadium with Winston-Salem...The strange scheduling does allow the Hillcats the chance to sleep in their own bed for 23 straight nights...That stretch includes the All-Star break, an off-day, 15 out of 18 games at home and three commuter away games (June 18th-July 9th)...
SLOPPY VERSUS THE SOX: Last night Lynchburg committed three errors that lead to four unearned runs in the 5-4 loss...The Hillcats were also thrown out on the base paths five times on the night...After the Cats had not been picked off by a catcher all season long, they got picked off by the Salem backstops three times in the four games against the Red Sox...
INAUSPICIOUS START: In the first inning last night RHP Bryan Morris induced ground balls from the first three men he faced, but thanks to an error the inning continued and the first of four unearned runs against the starter scored...In the bottom of the inning, four of the first five Hillcats to bat got base hits and two of those knocks were doubles...Lynchburg only plated one run though and it was a 1-1 game after an inning...
THE COWBOY WAY: Former Oklahoma State Cowboy INF Jordy Mercer went 2-for-4 last night with an RBI in the Hillcats loss...In the last five games he is a combined 10-for-21 (.476) with four doubles, a triple, a homer, six RBI and five runs scored...In his last 17 games Mercer has raised his average from .226 to .253 by going 22-for-64 (.344) with nine doubles, a triple, a home run, 14 RBI and 13 runs...Mercer's teammate at OSU, 1B Matt Hague, went 1-for-4 a night ago...It his last six games the first baseman has gone a combined 10-for-21 (.476) with five RBI...He has hit in 11 of his last 12 games and has gone 15-for-38 (.395) over that time, raising his average from .278 to .298...Over the last four games Mercer and Hague have gone a combined 18-for-38 (.474) with five doubles, a triple, a homer, 11 RBI and five runs scored...Mercer is riding a five-game hitting-streak and Hague a six...
RARE RUN: RHP Mike Colla allowed a run last night for the first time in 10 and 2/3 innings (seven appearances)...He had allowed just one run in his previous 29 and 1/3 innings before last night...It was also his first loss of the season after starting the season 4-0 and just the seventh loss for the bullpen this season as compared to their 20 wins...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Anthony Carter was selected in the 26th round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft out of Georgia Perimeter College...He made his professional debut with Bristol at the Rookie level in 2006 and went 2-8 with a 7.67 ERA in 13 starts...In 2007 he pitched at the Rookie level again with Great Falls and posted 5-3 record with a 3.93 ERA in 15 starts...Last season Carter advanced to the Full Season Low-A level with Kannapolis...With the Intimidators he went 5-2 with a 2.77 earned run average in 11 starts before being promoted to Advanced-A...In 17 games last season (16 starts) with Winston-Salem, he went 6-5 with a 4.90 ERA...This season he returned to the High-A level and has gone 6-4 with a 4.09 ERA in 15 starts...In four starts against Lynchburg over two seasons he has a 1-0 record with a 3.33 ERA (nine earned runs in 24 and 1/3 innings)...In his two starts against Lynchburg this season he has an ERA of 2.03 (three earned runs in 13 and 1/3 innings) but has two no-decisions to show for it and the Hillcats have come from behind in the late innings of both games to win...
Carolina League Stories from July 2, 2009
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- Kinston Beats Blue Rocks 6-1 - Kinston Indians
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- Birds Rout the Sox in Series Opener - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Nery and Egan Stellar in 2-0 Win - Frederick Keys
- Casey Kelly Endures Roughest Outing of 2009 in Seven-Run Loss - Salem RidgeYaks
- P-Nats vs. Keys Tonight - Potomac Nationals
- Tribe Talk - Kinston Indians
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Hill City Howlers
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