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Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

September 6, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (27-41, 72-65) vs. SALEM RED SOX (34-34, 66-71)

September 6th, 2009 -- 6:05 PM

Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium

LHP Jeff Locke (4-8, 4.85) vs. RHP Eammon Portice (8-7, 4.56)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg lost 7-6 in 11 innings last night at Salem in game two of four in a row against the Red Sox and the final road game of the regular season...Tonight the Hillcats play the first of two against Salem at City Stadium and the second to last game of the regular season...They went 3-5 in their recent eight road games in a row...

VS. SALEM: The Hillcats are 9-9 against the Red Sox in the 460 series this season and are 4-4 at Calvin Falwell Field...Last season the Cats won the season series against Salem, then the Avalanche and an affiliate of the Houston Astros, by a count of 12-8...Salem was the only team in the Carolina League that the Hillcats had a winning record against last season...In the all-time series Salem leads 154-136, but they are 65-78 in the Hill City...

QUITE THE CATCH: Yesterday Lynchburg added C Tony Sanchez and OF Starling Marte to their roster, both promoted from Low-A West Virginia...The two went a combined 3-for-6 with a double, two RBI and a run scored in their Advanced-A and Hillcats debut last night...Unfortunately, Marte left the game in the third inning with an injury...Sanchez was the fourth overall pick by the Pirates out of Boston College in this year's draft and was batting .316 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 46 RBI in 41 games played for the Power...Marte was signed in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic and was hitting .312 with nine doubles, five triples, three homers, 34 RBI, 41 runs scored and 24 steals in 54 games played with the Pirates Low-A affiliate...Sanchez is the third fourth overall pick and the fourth top five overall pick to play for Lynchburg in the last two seasons (Pedro Alvarez, Daniel Moskos and Brad Lincoln)...

PLEASE, NO EXTRAS: The loss last night was the sixth straight extra-inning defeat for the Hillcats...Lynchburg started the season 6-2 when playing free baseball, before falling in the last six...

SPOTTED SIX: Thanks to a five-run third inning and and another run in the fourth, the Hillcats had a 6-0 lead through four innings last night...It was the biggest lead blown by Lynchburg this season...They had let go of a five-run advantage twice this year...The Cats are 53-3 when leading after eight innings this year and two of those losses are to the Red Sox...

IT'S A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT: Lynchburg had their second five-run inning in three games last night and had plated six runs through four innings...They did not score a run the rest of the game...In the last five games the Hillcats have scored 16 runs combined in the first three innings of play, but have not scored a single run in the last three...They started last night's game 3-for-8 with men in scoring position, then went 0-for-11 the rest of the way and stranded 13 runners on the night...

FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM: Over the last eight road games Lynchburg collected ten sacrifice hits (five sacrifice flies and five bunts)...All five of the sac flies have come off the bat of INF Jordy Mercer, who leads the team with 13 sac flies and 16 sac hits on the season...The Hillcats have 97 sacrifice hits on the season, second most in the Carolina League...Their 51 sac flies are the most in the circuit...

BATTERED AND BRUISED: Last night the Hillcats were hit by a pitch on two separate occasions and have now been plunked eight times in the last three games...On the season Lynchburg has been hit by a pitch 96 times, the most of any team in the Carolina League...The next closest in the circuit is Winston-Salem with 68...

GETTIN' ON AND GETTIN' IN: INF Chase d'Arnaud went 2-for-5 last night with a double and two runs scored...He has now scored 29 runs in his last 28 contests and has a .444 OBP in those games...On the recent road stretch he went a combined 13-for-29 (.448) with four doubles, a homer, three RBI and 11 runs scored in eight games...He has hit in 24 of his last 28 games he is batting .345 (33-for-113) over that time...The infielder was also recently chosen as one of the six representatives of the Pirates in the prestigious Arizona Fall League this off-season...

DRIVING 'EM IN: INF Jordy Mercer went 1-for-4 last night with a double, an RBI and a run scored...He has driven in 21 runs in his last 22 games played and brought home 11 in his last seven...He has hit in 19 of his last 22 games and over that time he is batting .306 (26-for-85) with five doubles, three homers, 21 RBI, 11 runs scored, seven walks and two stolen bases...He is batting .298 (34-for-114) in August after he hit .226 (26-for-115) in July...Mercer leads the Hillcats and is fifth in the Carolina League with 82 RBI, and he is tied for first in the league with 35 doubles...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Eammon Portice was selected by the Red Sox in the 12th round of 2007 draft out of High Point University...In his three years with the Panthers, he went a combined 19-17 with a 3.99 ERA in 51 games (48 starts) as a member of the Big South Conference...He made his professional debut in 2007 with Short-Season Low-A Lowell and went 0-2 with a 5.01 ERA in 14 games in relief with the Spinners...Last season he made two appearances (one start) with the GCL Red Sox and did not allow a run, but he spent the majority of the season with full season Low-A Greenville...With the Drive he posted a 4-4 record with a 3.64 ERA in 18 games (11 starts) in the South Atlantic League...This season he progressed to Advanced-A and has gone 8-7 with a 4.56 ERA in 24 starts with Salem...Tonight will be his fourth start against Lynchburg, he is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in his three starts versus the Hillcats thus far...

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