Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
Published on July 14, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (7-11, 36-52) @ MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS (8-11, 34-55)
July 14th, 2010 -- 7:05 PM
@ BB&T Coastal Field
RHP Jordan Hotchkiss (5-3, 2.58) vs. RHP Zeke Spruill (0-1, 9.00)
THE HILLCATS: On Monday, Winston-Salem salvaged the final game of the three-game series with a 7-4 victory over Lynchburg...Tonight the Hillcats open up a four-game weekend series with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans...Tonight's game is the fourth of seven straight road games...
VS. MYRTLE BEACH: Lynchburg is 5-4 against Myrtle Beach this season...After losing the first series at City Stadium, the Hillcats have taken two out of three in each of the past two series...This will be the first four-game series between the two teams this season...Last season the Cats went 12-8 against the Pelicans...Myrtle Beach holds the all-time advantage in the series with Lynchburg 118-102...
IT'S CALLED MALE BONDING: Lynchburg has spent the majority of July on the road, and will play 15 total road games this month, vs. 14 at home...Tonight's game is the fourth of a seven straight away from home...Lynchburg ends July with six more on the road before a home-heavy August...The Hillcats will play 17 of 29 at home next month
DUCKS ON THE POND: Monday Lynchburg went 3-for-9 (.333) with men and scoring position and scored two runs off White Sox first rounder LHP Chris Sale...In the Dash series they were 10-for-24 (.417) with five two-out RBI...The runs scored off of Sale were the first two he allowed as a professional...The 13th overall draft pick in the 2010 draft has made four appearance...In their recent three-game series against Winston-Salem at City Stadium, Lynchburg went 6-for-42 (.143) with men in scoring position, only two of those six hits brought in a run and they stranded 36 men on base (12 per game)...The Cats had 36 hits in the series (12 per game), but scored just nine runs (three per game)...
I'LL SPOT YOU: Sunday RHP James Avery made a spot start for Triple-A Louisville and allowed three runs in six innings of work in a no-decision for the Bats...It was his second career start at the Triple-A level, as he also made a spot start for Louisville in 2006...Avery, who has spent the last three seasons at the Double-A level, is scheduled expected to start for Lynchburg again on Friday at Myrtle Beach...RHP Chase Ware made a spot start for the Hillcats Saturday night in Avery's place and did not allow a run in four and 1/3 innings of action...He did not allow a hit through the first four and 1/3 innings in his first start of the season and just his third start of his professional career...In his first five games (11 and 1/3 innings) with the Cats he has not given up a run...Earlier this season while pitching for Low-A Dayton, Ware threw 22 and 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings...All 13 of his appearances his senior season at Arkansas State University were as a starter and he is slated to start again on Thursday against the Pelicans...
FELIX FELICIS: Today OF Felix Perez was called up to Double-A Carolina...He was hitting .338 in 16 games with four doubles, two triples and nine RBI for the Hillcats...He was 5-for-11 (.455) with two triples and five RBI in last weekend's series at Winston-Salem...In six games against the Dash, Perez had a hit in each one...Overall against Winston he went 11-for-24 (.458) with two doubles, two triples and six RBI...He had seven multi-hit games, including a career-best four against the Dash 7/4...This is the 25-year-old's first season in professional baseball after defecting from Cuba, and signing with the Reds this year...
NINE IS FINE: UTIL Neftali Soto went 1-for-5 Monday to extend his season-high hitting streak to nine games...Over that time he is 13-for-40 (.325) with three doubles, a triple, a home run, four RBI and two runs scored...His average has gone from .251 to .260 over this stretch...In 15 day games this season, he is batting .317 with eight doubles, two home runs and 11 RBI...In night contests he is hitting .248...During the day his slugging percentage is .550 and his OPS is .894...In nights games his slugging percentage is .408 and his OPS is .706
BOW AND ARROW: LHP Andrew Bowman threw a scoreless inning in relief in the series finale at Winston-Salem Monday... In one inning, he walked one batter...He's now thrown four straight scoreless appearances (five innings) and hasn't surrendered a run in seven of his last eight outings...his ERA has dropped from 6.90 to 5.72 in that span...the last time Bowman let up any runs was 6/27, when Myrtle Beach scored twice in an eventual 11-8 loss for Lynchburg...
COME BACK AND DAY OH: OF Kyle Day went 2-for-4 Monday night...He has hit in 11 of his last 13 games and over that time he is 18-for-40 (.450) with three doubles, a triple, a grand slam, nine RBI, eight runs scored, five walks and three steals...In those 13 contests Day has raised his average from .226 to .267...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Zeke Spruill was selected by the White Sox in the second round of the 2008 draft out of Kell High School (GA)...He made his professional debut in 2008 with the GCL Braves where he went 7-0 with a 2.93 ERA in 10 appearances and three starts...Last year he started with GCL and went 1-0 with a 4.58 ERA in four starts while striking out 23 in 19.2 IP...After getting called up to Low-A Rome, he went 8-6 with a 3.03 ERA...He made 20 appearances and started 19 games...This season he made two starts with the Pelicans before being placed on the disabled list with a hand injury (4/20)...He was activated 6/29 and sent to the GCL Braves on a rehab assignment where he gave up one run in three innings of work...He returned to Myrtle Beach 7/4 and has started twice, giving up two earned runs in 5.2 IP in two appearances...Overall with Myrtle Beach, he is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in four appearances, three starts...Before the season, Baseball America ranked him as the ninth-best prospect in the Braves organization
Carolina League Stories from July 14, 2010
- Hotchkiss and Hillcats Beat Birds - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Gardner, K-Tribe Spoil Zimmermann Rehab - Potomac Nationals
- Kinston Takes Down Potomac 3-1 - Kinston Indians
- Salem Blanks Winston 4-0 - Salem RidgeYaks
- Salem Shuts out Dash in Series Opener - Winston-Salem Dash
- Series Opener Rained out in Wilmington - Frederick Keys
- Wednesday's Series Opener Postponed - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Bellamy, Escobar, & Sale Promoted - Winston-Salem Dash
- Perez Promoted to Double-A - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Lonnie Chisenhall to Play in Eastern League All-Star Game Tonight - Kinston Indians
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