CarL1 Hill City Howlers

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

Published on August 18, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Hill City Howlers News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (23-26, 52-67) vs. MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS (25-27, 51-71)

August 18th, 2010 -- 7:05 PM

Calvin Falwell Field @ Lynchburg City Stadium

RHP Josh Ravin (1-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Paul Clemens (0-3, 3.48)

THE HILLCATS: Last night Lynchburg topped Myrtle Beach 5-3 to even up their four-game series at City Stadium at a game a piece...The Hillcats have won five of their last six games and over a longer stretch have won nine out 12...Tonight the Cats play game three of the series with the Pelicans and the sixth game of this seven-game homestand...

VS. MYRTLE BEACH: Lynchburg is 8-7 against Myrtle Beach this season and 4-4 at City Stadium...Last season the Cats went 12-8 against the Pelicans...Myrtle Beach holds the all-time advantage in the series with Lynchburg 121-105...

SPOILER ALERT: Myrtle Beach enters tonight's game a game back of Salem for the final playoff spot in the Southern Division...The three teams (Myrtle Beach, Salem and Kinston) looking to join Winston-Salem in the Southern Division Championship Series are separated by just a game and a half...Lynchburg just swept Kinston in their last series to lay a blow to their playoff hopes and now are looking to play spoiler again with Myrtle Beach in this four-game set...The Hillcats meanwhile have moved within four and a half games back of the final playoff spot in the Northern Division with 19 games left to play (with a game against Salem to be played if necessary)..

YOU'RE GETTING SWEEPY: Lynchburg completed a three-game series sweep of Kinston Sunday night with a 6-4 victory...It was just the second series sweep of the season for the Hillcats...The other came May 31st-June 2nd when the Cats swept their 460 rivals, the Salem Red Sox...On the flip side Lynchburg has been swept five times (four in a three-game series and once in a four-game set)...

CARRY ME HOME: The Hillcats have started this seven-game homestand with a 4-1 mark after entering the series 3-13 in their last 16 games at City Stadium...Lynchburg is 11-8 in their last 19 road games, including a 5-2 record on their most recent road trip...The Green & Gold are now 28-33 this season at Calvin Falwell Field...

YOU DOWN WITH P-O-Y? RHP Jordan Hotchkiss tossed six and 1/3 innings last night and gave up two runs in earning his 10th victory of the season...The righty is leading the league in ERA (2.30), tied for second in wins (10), tied for first WHIP (1.03) and third in opponents batting average (.211)...Hotchkiss has now won four of his last five starts and given up two runs or less in his last four outings...

LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR: RHP Nick Christiani pitched an inning and 2/3 last night and did not allow a run to score...He also stranded two inherited runners, including the tying run in the seventh inning...This season the right-hander has inherited 15 runners, and only allowed one to score (6%)...Christiani has not allowed a run in his last five outings (five and 2/3 innings) after he had given up at least one run in five of his last six games...

THE SHANE-ING: INF Shane Carlson smacked an RBI double off the wall in center field Monday night in his first pinch-hit appearance of the season with the Hillcats...That hit extended his hitting streak to a season-long 13 games dating back to July 23...Over that time, Carlson is 17-for-48 (.354) with four multi-hit games and eight RBI...He has raised his batting average from .234 to .286...The streak is the longest active streak, and is now the second longest so far this season...OF Kyle Day had a 15-game streak that was snapped during the last homestand, followed by OF Josh Fellhauer, INF Alex Buchholz, OF Denis Phipps and INF Chris Richburg tied for second, each with 11-game hit streaks...

QUALITY AND QUANTITY: RHP Curtis Partch allowed three runs in six innings of work last night and struck out a season-best seven batters in taking the tough-luck loss...It was his third straight quality start and his fourth in his last five outings...In his last five starts the right-hander is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA (nine earned run in 28 innings) to lower his ERA from 5.80 to 5.05...

WELCOME TO THE DOJO: LHP Donnie Joseph pitched the ninth inning last night to earn his 17th save with Lynchburg and his 23rd of the season (six with Low-A Dayton)...He leads the team and is second in the Carolina League in the category...The lefty has notched a save in his last six appearances and is now 17-for-19 (90%) in save opportunities with the Hillcats and 23-for-27 (85%) on the season...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Paul Clemens was drafted by the Braves in the seventh round of the 2008 draft out of Louisburg (N.C.) JC...He made his professional debut in 2008 with the GCL Braves and went 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in one game...With Danville that same season he was 3-3 with a 3.39 ERA and one save in 12 games (eight starts)...He finished the season by making one start with Low-A Rome where he lost that outing...Last season he spent the entire year with the R-Braves and had a 6-5 mark with three saves in 26 games (11 starts)...This season he returned to Rome and went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in eight relief appearances before getting promoted to Myrtle Beach...With the Pelicans he has gone 0-3 with a 3.48 ERA and two saves in 23 games (four starts)...He has made two relief appearances against Lynchburg and has given up one earned run in three and 2/3 innings (2.45 ERA)...

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Carolina League Stories from August 18, 2010


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