Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
May 6, 2010 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (13-13) vs. KINSTON INDIANS (9-17)
May 6th, 2010 -- 6:05 PM
Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium
RHP Scott Carroll (0-1, 2.70) vs. LHP Nick Hagadone (0-2, 2.16)
THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg rallied again last night with a 3-2 win over Kinston at City Stadium...The Hillcats have now taken the first three games of their current four-game series against the K-Tribe...The Hillcats have won six out of seven heading into this evening...Tonight the Hillcats play the final game of their series against Kinston and the seventh game of their current ten-game homestand...The Cats enter today two and a half games back of first place Frederick in the Northern Division...
VS. KINSTON: Lynchburg is 5-1 against Kinston this season after taking two out of three from the K-Tribe last week at Grainger Stadium and winning the first three games of this set...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 153-148 all-time against the Indians and 85-64 in the Hill City...
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: The Hillcats improved to 8-5 at City Stadium this season with their win last night...They are now 5-1 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 in the midst 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...
IT'S A WALK-OFF...AGAIN: Last night Lynchburg won with a ninth inning rally that resulted in a walk-off win for the second straight night...Those were the the Hillcats first two walk-off wins of the season and it was also the first two times they won a game this season with their final team at-bat...The only other game decided with a walk-off run was when the Cats lost at Potomac on a two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth inning at Pfitzner Stadium on April 25th...
COMEBACK CATS 2.0? The Hillcats trailed 2-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning last night before they scored three runs to earn the 3-2 victory...They trailed 5-0 entering the seventh inning Tuesday night before rallying for a 6-5 win...These two games marked the first two times Lynchburg has won when trailing after five innings (previously 0-8) and after eight frames (0-9)...The Cats had only come from behind to win three games all season before Tuesday night, and all three comeback wins were just early one-run deficits...Last season the Comeback Cats had 23 come from behind victories out of their 45 wins in the first half of the season...Nine of those wins were with the team trailing in the seventh inning or later...The 2009 Hillcats had five walk-off wins, but none of them came in back-to-back nights...
THE PRESSURE'S HIGH: INF Alex Buchholz smacked the game-winning RBI single last night in the bottom of the ninth inning to cap off the Hillcats comeback walk-off victory...This season he is batting .474 (9-for-19) with men in scoring position...Last season Buchholz batted just .165 (15-for-91) with RISP with Advanced-A Sarasota...
AGAINST THE ODDS: OF Justin Reed rocketed a two-run homer out to right field to tie the game at two in the bottom of the ninth inning last night...He entered the at-bat 1-for-17 against lefties with 10 strike outs...LHP Kelvin De La Cruz had a shutout going into the ninth inning and had only allowed just to hits on the night until the two-run shot...Reed entered last night batting .159 with a home run and three runs driven in...
SWATTING SOTO: UTIL Neftali Soto went 1-for-4 last night with one of the Hillcats five hits...On Tuesday night, he hit a walk-off homer, which was his first of his professional career and it gave him four homers in his last four games played at the time...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 13-for-26 (.500) with a double, four homers, nine RBI and eight runs scored...He entered this homestand with just one home run and four extra-base hits on the season in 19 games...Over the course of five games Soto has raised his batting average from .236 to .306...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: LHP Nick Hagadone was acquired by the Indians from the Boston Red Sox in a trade last season...Hagadone, RHP Justin Masterson and RHP Bryan Price were swapped for C Victor Martinez just one hour before the trade deadline...Hagadone was originally a supplemental first round draft pick (55th overall) of the Red Sox in 2007 out of the University of Washington...In his three years as a Huskie he was primarily a reliever and as their closer his junior and final year there he went 6-1 with a 2.77 ERA in 25 games (two starts) with 11 saves...He made his professional debut that same year with Short Season Low-A Lowell and went 0-1 with a 1.85 ERA in 10 starts...In 2008 he threw for full season Low-A Greenville and posted a 1-1 mark with no earned runs allowed in three starts before missing the rest of the season after Tommy John surgery...Last season he returned to Greenville and went 0-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 10 starts with the Drive before he was traded to the Indians system...With the Tribe he made five starts with full season Low-A Lake County and went 0-1 with a 2.45 ERA in five starts before moving up to Advanced-A Kinston, where he had no decisions and a 5.06 ERA in two starts for the K-Tribe...This season he is back at the High-A level and he has an 0-2 mark with a 2.16 ERA for Kinston in five starts...Tonight will be his first appearance against Lynchburg...Hagadone is rated as the third best prospect in the Cleveland system according to Baseball America...
Carolina League Stories from May 6, 2010
- Sox Sweep Rocks, Take Finale 4-3 - Salem Red Sox
- Salem Sweeps Away the Rocks - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Peacock Shuts Down Myrtle Beach; P-Nats Win 4-0 - Potomac Nationals
- Pelicans Blanked Again, Drop Series to Potomac - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Webb's Two Homers Drive K-Tribe to 2-0 Win - Kinston Indians
- Hillcats Bested by Strong Pitching, Can't Sweep - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Ward Drives Keys To 5-4 Win Over Dash - Frederick Keys
- K-Tribe Notes - Kinston Indians
- Keys Shock Dash With Another Comeback Win - Winston-Salem Dash
- Legendary Former Blue Rock Robin Roberts Passes Away - Wilmington Blue Rocks
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