Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes
Published on July 21, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (10-14, 39-55) vs. FREDERICK KEYS (12-12, 53-41)
July 21st, 2010 -- 7:05 PM
Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium
RHP James Avery (5-3, 2.89) vs. RHP Ryan Berry (2-1, 2.39)
THE HILLCATS: Last night Lynchburg evened up their three-game set against Frederick with a 7-4 victory at City Stadium...Tonight is the deciding game of the series with the Keys and the third contest of a seven-game homestand...
VS. FREDERICK: The Hillcats are 6-10 against the Keys this season and are 5-4 at City Stadium...The last time these two teams met, Frederick swept Lynchburg in a four-game series at Harry Grove Stadium...Last season the Cats went 14-5 versus the Keys and were 7-2 at in the Hill City...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage 161-143...Last season the Cats record against the Keys was their best against any opponent in the Carolina League at home, on the road and overall...
HOME AGAIN: The win a night ago for Lynchburg snapped their seven-game losing streak at City Stadium...The home skid matched the longest in Hillcats history...The Hillcats completed their seven-game road swing Saturday night with a 4-3 mark after they went 0-6 on their most recent homestand...
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: RHP James Avery was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week Monday for the week of July 12th through the 18th...The right-hander dealt eight scoreless innings in his last start on Friday night to earn his fifth win of the campaign...He only gave up two hits and struck out six...It was his longest start of the season, two outs shy of matching the longest outing of his career and the longest start by a Hillcats pitcher this season...Avery became the second Hillcat this season to earn POW honors...The other was C Devin Mesoraco, who was named Player of the Week for the week of May 10th through the 16th...The last Hillcats hurler to be named was RHP Matt McSwain last season in August...
A KISS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD: RHP Jordan Hotchkiss pitched five scoreless innings last night and left in line for his seventh victory of the season...The right-hander has not given up a run in his last two starts (12 innings)...The converted reliever leads the Carolina League in ERA (2.20), WHIP (0.99) and is second in batting average against (.205)...
SUMMER IN THE CITY FOR SOTO: UTIL Neftali Soto homered last night in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie and give the Hillcats the lead for good...It was the second straight night he hit a long ball and...The right-handed slugger leads the team with 13 home runs and is tied for fourth in the Carolina League...Of those 13 dingers, 10 have come at home at City Stadium...Also, 12 of those homers have been against right-handers and eight of those round trippers have been solo shots...
AND WE'LL BE FREE: RHP Justin Freeman worked a scoreless ninth inning Monday night...He has now thrown 14 consecutive scoreless frames and over those 13 games his ERA has dropped from 4.60 to 3.18...He is an inning and 1/3 shy of tying the longest scoreless streak by a Hillcat this season (RHP Nick Christiani, 5/11-6/8)...The right-hander is first in the league in games pitched (37), tied for second in games finished (25), tied for fifth in holds (6), first in fewest walks per nine innings (1.19) and second in fewest base runners per nine innings amongst relievers (9.33)...Freeman is also second on the team with six saves...In April his ERA was 7.88, in May it was 3.07, in June it dropped to 2.40 and so far in July he has not given up a run in seven appearances out of the pen...
BOW AND ARROW: LHP Andrew Bowman threw two and 1/3 innings of perfect relief Monday night...The lefty stuckout a season-high five batters...He has now thrown five straight scoreless appearances (seven and 1/3 innings) and hasn't surrendered a run in eight of his last nine outings...His ERA has dropped from 6.90 to 5.40 over that time...
KNIGHT AND DAY: OF Kyle Day went 1-for-4 with an RBI last night and has now hit in a season-high seven straight games...He has hit in 15 of his last 17 games and over that time he is 23-for-56 (.411) with three doubles, a triple, a grand slam, 11 RBI, eight runs scored, five walks and three steals...In those 17 contests Day has raised his average from .226 to .272...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Ryan Berry was drafted by the Orioles in the ninth round of the 2009 draft out of Rice University...His junior and final season with the Owls he went 7-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 14 games (11 starts)...As a freshman in 2007 he posted an 11-3 mark with a 3.01 ERA in 23 games (20 starts) and was named National Freshman of the Year...This season marks his first in professional baseball and he began the season with full season Low-A Delmarva and had an 0-3 mark with a 3.50 ERA in eights starts prior to his promotion to Frederick...He has made ten starts for the Keys and gone 2-1 with a 2.39 ERA...Berry is ranked as the 24th best prospect in the Orioles system...He has made two starts against Lynchburg and gone 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA...The Hillcats are the only team in the Carolina League to plate more than two earned runs against Berry in his ten outings in the CL...
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