Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
Published on May 4, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (11-13) vs. KINSTON INDIANS (9-15) May 4th, 2010 -- 6:05 PM Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium RHP Mark Serrano (2-0, 3.94) vs. RHP Alexander Perez (0-1, 6.00)
THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg took game one from Kinston with a 4-1 series opening victory at City Stadium...The Hillcats have now won four out of five heading into this evening...Tonight the Hillcats continue a 10-game homestand with the second game of their four-game series against Kinston...The Cats enter today three games back of first place Frederick in the Northern Division...
VS. KINSTON: Lynchburg is 3-1 against Kinston this season after taking two out of three from the K-Tribe last week at Grainger Stadium and winning the series opener last night...The Hillcats went 10-10 versus the Indians in 2009 and were 6-4 at Grainger Stadium...After starting 8-4 against the K-Tribe, the Cats lost six of the final eight games between the two...Lynchburg is 151-148 all-time against the Indians and 83-64 in the Hill City...
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: The Hillcats improved to 6-5 at City Stadium this season with their win last night...They are now 3-1 on this current 10-game homestand that is following a stretch of 13 games in a row on the road in which they went 5-8...The Cats are at the start of a stretch of 17 out of 21 games at Calvin Falwell Field and they will play 20 of their 30 games in the month of May at home...
THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM, BUT THE SECOND MOUSE CATCHES THE CHEESE: With their win last night Lynchburg is now 7-1 in series openers this season...Unfortunately the Hillcats are just 4-12 in games played after the first game of a series...The Cats have been reversing that trend of late though by going 2-2 in their last four games after the series opener to give them a series win in their last two sets...
STRIVING FOR PERFECTION: The Hillcats defense did not commit an error in the 11-6 loss to the Nationals...It marked the eighth straight game the Cats did not make an error...To start the season Lynchburg had 21 errors through their first 13 games, which was at the time the most in the Carolina League and their .956 fielding percentage was last as well...Since they committed a season-high four errors on April 21 to give them at least one error in ten straight games and in 12 of their first 13, the Hillcats have just two errors in their last 11 games played...Their 23 errors are the second fewest in the CL and their .974 fielding percentage is tied for second in the circuit...
BOXED IN: RHP Brad Boxberger tossed a career-high six scoreless innings to earn his third win of the season last night...The former USC Trojan is now third in the Carolina League in ERA (1.44), tied for third in wins, tied for fifth in strike outs (27), third in the league in WHIP (0.96), second in batting average against (.200), and fourth in strike out per nine inning ratio (9.72)...He has not allowed more than one earned run in any of his five starts this season....Boxberger's last two outings were both against Kinston, going a combined 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA (one earned run in 11 innings)...The Hillcats starters are now 9-5 with a 2.83 ERA this season...
SHOT IN THE ARM: RHP Nick Christiani made his Hillcats and Advanced-A debut last night and he worked two perfect innings of relief...With Low-A Dayton to start this season and his professional career he went 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA with one save in seven relief appearances for the Dragons...On Sunday the Hillcats bullpen allowed eight runs in four innings of action and got saddled with their eighth loss of the season...The bullpens earned run average is now at 6.50 and they allowed just one run in three innings of action last night...The Cats pen has four different pitchers with an ERA over eight (three of which are over 12), and only three relievers (including Christiani) have an ERA under four...
SWATTING SOTO: UTIL Neftali Soto went 2-for-4 yesterday with a home run, an RBI and a run scored...On Saturday night he went 4-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI and three runs scored...It was the first four-hit game of the season by a Hillcat, the first multi-homer game and it matched the most RBI and runs scored by a Cat in a game this year...On this homestand, Soto is a combined 10-for-17 (.588) with a double, three homers, seven RBI and seven runs scored...He entered this homestand with just one home run and four extra-base hits on the season...
DO IT ALL DEVIN: C Devin Mesoraco went 1-for-3 on Sunday with a home run, three RBI and two runs scored...His homer on Sunday was his team leading sixth of the season and he is now tied for third in the Carolina League...He also leads the team with 17 RBI...On Thursday night at Kinston he laid down his first bunt single of the season and stole his first two bags of the campaign...He did not steal a base all of last year...Sunday he threw out both runners that attempted to steal to improve his caught stealing percentage up to 42% (5-for-12) on the season...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Alexander Perez was signed by the Indians in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic...That year he pitched with the Dominican Indians and went 1-2 with a 2.90 ERA in 13 games (10 starts)...The following season he threw for the GCL Indians and had a 2-4 record with a 4.26 ERA in 10 games (nine starts)...Last season he started the year with full season Low-A Lake County and posted a 5-4 mark with a 3.04 ERA in 15 starts before moving up to Advanced-A Kinston...With the K-Tribe he had a 1-2 record in eight games (seven starts)...This year he started the season on the Disabled List for the K-Tribe...He made his first start last week against Lynchburg in Kinston and he gave up two runs in three innings pitched to take the loss in his 2010 debut...
Carolina League Stories from May 4, 2010
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- Resilient Red Sox Prevail 7-4 in 10 Innings - Salem RidgeYaks
- Keys Take Seesaw Battle with Another One-Run Win - Winston-Salem Dash
- Lynchburg Walks Off with Win - Kinston Indians
- Soto Caps Cats to Comeback with Walk-Off Blast - Hill City Howlers
- Sing The 7th Inning Stretch At Bb&t Coastal Field - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Kennelly's Grand Slam Keys Pelicans Afternoon Win - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- P-Nats Shut Down By Pelicians 9-1 - Potomac Nationals
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Hill City Howlers
- K-Tribe Notes For Tuesday at Lynchburg - Kinston Indians
- K-Tribe At Home This Weekend - Kinston Indians
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