CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes

Published on August 31, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (30-31, 59-72) @ WINSTON-SALEM DASH (32-28, 75-55)

August 31st, 2010 -- 7:00 PM

@ BB&T Ballpark

RHP Pedro Villarreal (0-1, 2.63) vs. RHP Nate Jones (10-5, 4.26)

THE HILLCATS: On Sunday night Lynchburg beat Wilmington 4-3 in ten innings to take the rubber match of the three-game series at City Stadium...The Green & Gold just ended a stretch of 14 out of 17 games at Calvin Falwell Field and over that time they went 11-6...They just wrapped up a seven-game homestand in they went 4-3...Tonight the Cats open up a four-game series with Winston-Salem and a seven-game road trip that will round out the 2010 regular season...Lynchburg entered today three and a half games back of Potomac for the final playoff spot in the Northern Division with seven games left to play in the second half of the season...

VS. WINSTON-SALEM: Lynchburg is 4-12 against Winston-Salem this season and 2-7 in the Triad...The Dash have three, three-game series sweeps of the Hillcats this year...Last season the Cats went 11-9 against the Dash...Lynchburg holds the all-time advantage in the series with Winston-Salem 160-152...The last time the Green & Gold traveled to BB&T Ballpark, they got the better of the Dash in two out of three games in the set...

STILL BREATHING: Sunday night the Hillcats topped Wilmington 4-3 in ten innings and pulled within three and a half games of first place in the Northern Division with seven games left in the regular season...Potomac, who leads the North, has nine games left to play including a doubleheader tonight at Salem...The Nationals lost in walk-off fashion 7-6 to the Keys at Harry Grove Stadium on Sunday...The Cats do not play the P-Nats again and they also have to catch up on Wilmington, who they trail by a game and a half...

GOOD AFTERTASTE: Sunday night was the last home game of the regular season for the Hillcats...They closed out the home campaign with a 4-3 win in ten innings over the Blue Rocks...Lynchburg went 33-37 in 70 home games in 2010...They finished off their games at City Stadium by going 9-5 in their last two homestands combined...This after they had dropped 13 out of 16 at Calvin Falwell Field...On Sunday the Cats won in walk-off fashion for the sixth time this season in the Hill City...Last season they won their final home game of the season with a walk-off win...They topped Salem in game two of the Mills Cup Championship with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning by UTIL Jose De Los Santos...

FREE BASEBALL: Two of the three games in the series against Wilmington went to extra innings...On Friday night the Hillcats dropped the series opener 8-7 in 12 innings to the Blue Rocks...Sunday night the Cats returned the favor with a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Rocks in ten innings of action...Lynchburg is now 4-7 in extra innings this season...

PROSPECT SWAPPING: SS Miguel Rojas was promoted back to Double-A Carolina today and SS Didi Gregorius was promoted to Lynchburg from Low-A Dayton to take his spot on the roster...Rojas was batting .230 with a home run and 14 runs driven in in 74 games with the Hillcats...Gregorius was hitting .273 with 11 triples, five home runs, 41 RBI and 16 steals in 120 games for the Dragons...Rojas was ranked as the 17th best prospect in the Reds minor League system prior to the start of the season according to Baseball America, while Gregorius was the 15th ranked...

LIFE IN THE LIMELIGHT: UTIL Cody Puckett was named the Hillcats Most Valuable Player and the Most Popular Player by the team Saturday night...He responded to the recognition with his 18th home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning that night and last night he went 3-for-5 with the game-winning walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the tenth inning...The former eighth round selection of the Reds is batting .275 with 18 homers (tied for the team lead), 54 RBI and 17 steals (first on the team)...Puckett is second in the CL in doubles (40), second in extra-base hits (62), tied for third in home runs and fourth in total bases (229)...He hit his 40th double of the season Wednesday night to put him alone in second place on the single season all-time Hillcats list (passing Freddy Garcia, 1996 and Pat Magness, 2005)...He is now one short of tying the single season record (Ray Navarrette, 2002)...He is also five short of tying the all-time Lynchburg record (45, Scott Cooper, 1988)...The Hillcats also honored RHP Jordan Hotchkiss as the Starting Pitcher of the Year and LHP Donnie Joseph as the Reliever of the Year...Hotchkiss was 10-4 with a 2.30 ERA in 31 games (15 starts)...He was first in the league in ERA, tied for second in wins, tied for first in WHIP (1.03), third in opponents batting average (.211) and he was tops in the league in winning percentage (.714)...Joseph was 0-4 with a 2.31 ERA and 17 saves for Lynchburg...At the time of his departure he led the team and was second in the Carolina League in the category...His 17 saves with the Hillcats tied him for fourth all-time in team history (Joe Maskivich, 1997)...

TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Nate Jones was selected by the White Sox in the fifth round of the 2007 draft out of Northern Kentucky University...He began his professional career with Rookie Bristol that same year and went 0-4 with a 5.13 ERA in 13 games (10 starts)...He returned to Bristol the next season and went 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in four games (one start) before earning a promotion to full season Low-A Kannapolis, where he posted a 1-7 mark with a 6.83 ERA in 18 games (10 starts)...He also made two appearances with Winston-Salem that season, and he had no decisions and didn't allow an earned run for the Warthogs...Last season he began with Kannapolis and went 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA in 13 relief appearances with the Intimidators before he earned a promotion to Winston-Salem...In 32 appearances out of the pen for the Dash he went 2-1 with a 3.65 ERA with two saves...This season he has returned to the Dash as a starter and has gone 10-5 with a 4.26 ERA in 26 starts...Jones was listed as the 26th best prospect and his curveball was ranked as the best in the White Sox minor league system by Baseball America prior to the season...He has made five starts starts against Lynchburg this season and gone 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA (11 earned runs in 29 and 1/3 innings)...

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Carolina League Stories from August 31, 2010


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