Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
Published on July 14, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (6-11, 51-35) @ POTOMAC NATIONALS (11-7, 48-37)
July 14th, 2009 -- 12:05 PM
@ G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium
LHP Justin Wilson (3-6, 6.50) vs. RHP Jeff Mandel (7-4, 3.83)
THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg fell 7-3 in the series opener of a four-game series at Potomac last night...Today is the second game of a four-game series against Potomac and game five of a seven-game road trip...They have started this trip 2-2 and have a series victory over the Dash...
VS. POTOMAC: The Hillcats are 7-4 against the Nationals this season and have won all three series in which they have met, including their only series thus far at Pfitzner Stadium...Last season the two teams split the season series 10-10 and the P-Nats were just one of two teams the Cats had a .500 record or better against last year...Lynchburg won the final five games against each other last season...In the all-time series Lynchburg has the edge 150-139 and they are 68-70 in Woodbridge...The Hillcats have now won 12 of the last 16 games between these two teams and they have won six of the last eight games at the Pfitz...
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: Lynchburg, the winners of the first half championship in the Northern Division, just took two out of three from Winston-Salem, the first half Southern Division champions...Now the Hillcats are playing a four-game series with Potomac, the 2008 Mills Cup Champions in the Carolina League...
AN AFTERNOON AFFAIR: This season the Hillcats are 7-8 in day games...They are 44-27 in games played in the evening...
SERIES OPENER STUMBLES: After starting the season 18-1 in series openers and winning 17 in a row, Lynchburg has 3-6 in game one contests since...They were 3-0 in series openers against Potomac until their game one loss last night...
NEW KID IN TOWN: OF Lastings Milledge made his Hillcats debut last night and went 0-for-3 with a walk and committed an error in left field...He is playing three games with Lynchburg while Triple-A Indianapolis is on their all-star break...The former number one overall prospect in the New York Mets organization (2005 and 2006) was traded to the Pirates from the Nationals on June 30th along with RHP Joel Hanrahan for former Hillcats OF Nyjer Morgan and LHP Sean Burnett...Last season Milledge spent the majority of the season at the major league level with Washington and batted .268 with 14 homers, 61 RBI and 24 steals in 138 games with the Nationals...The Hillcats are the sixth team he has played with in 41 games this season (GCL Nationals, Syracuse Chiefs, Washington Nationals, GCL Pirates, Indianapolis Indians)...
LONG ROAD BACK: RHP Bryan Morris has made seven starts this season since missing the first two starts of the campaign due to elbow soreness...Last night he allowed four runs (three earned) in four innings of work to lose his third straight decision...The former first round draft pick of the Dodgers has failed to go five innings in his last four starts and he has an earned run average of 7.63 in those outings...Morris also missed time this spring with toe surgery, got shut down with a sore shoulder at the end of last season and missed all of 2007 because of Tommy John surgery...
FINDING MORE WATTAGE: C Kris Watts went 1-for-3 last night with a walk...He has now matched his longest hitting streak of the season by hitting in eight straight and over that time he has gone 11-for-26 (.423) with three doubles, four RBI and three runs scored...The all-star catcher hit .444 in April and was still batting .373 on May 23rd, but from then until before this hitting streak started he was hitting .195 (15-for-77) and his averaged dipped to .298...Watts currently is tied for third in the league with his .314 batting average and is first in the circuit with a .445 on-base percentage...
TODAY'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Jeff Mandel was a 19th round selection of the Nationals in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft out of Baylor University...He primarily closed games for the Bears as a junior in 2006 and went 2-3 with a 4.40 ERA with eight saves in 23 games (five starts)...In his final season at Baylor in 2007 the righty went 7-8 with a 4.55 ERA in 17 games (16 starts)...He made his pro debut that year with Short Season Low-A Vermont and allowed one run in a two-inning appearance before moving up to full season Low-A Hagerstown...With the Suns he posted a 4-7 mark with a 6.71 ERA in 14 games (13 starts)...Last season he began the year back in Hagerstown and went 4-3 with a 5.21 ERA before a promotion to Potomac...With the P-Nats Mandel had a 6-6 record with a 3.68 ERA in 17 starts...This season with the P-Nats he has gone 7-4 with a 3.83 ERA in 15 starts...He has made five starts against Lynchburg (two last season and three this year) and has posted a 2-3 mark with a 5.46 ERA (17 earned runs in 28 innings)...In his last outing against the Hillcats he allowed six runs in five innings of work and took the loss on May 31st at City Stadium...
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- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Hill City Howlers
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