CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg Hillcats Mills Cup Game Notes

Published on September 15, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


MILLS CUP CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GAME TWO

LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (4-2, 73-66) vs. SALEM RED SOX (3-1, 67-72)

September 15th, 2009 -- 6:05 PM @ Lynchburg City Stadium

LHP Rudy Owens (1-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Stephen Fife (0-0, 0.00)

THE HILLCATS: Lynchburg took the opening contest of the Mills Cup Championship 9-2 over Salem last night at City Stadium...It was the third straight post-season win for the Hillcats after losing two of their first three games...Tonight is the second game of the best of five Mills Cup Championship against Salem...This marks the third time the two 460 rivals have met in the post-season and the first time they have played for a Carolina League Championship...

460 SERIES: Tonight is the second game of the best of five Mills Cup Championship between Lynchburg (45-24, 28-42, 73-66), the Northern Division Champions, and Salem (32-37, 35-35, 67-72), the Southern Division Champs...The Hillcats reached the finals by defeating Wilmington three games to two in the Northern Division Championship Series...The Red Sox advanced with an opening round sweep of Winston-Salem...The finals are a 2-3 format with Lynchburg hosting the first two games at City Stadium with the final three games (games four and five if necessary) at Salem Memorial Ballpark...This is the third time the two teams have met in post-season play, the first in the Mills Cup...The Lynchburg White Sox defeated the Salem Rebels in 1968 in a one-game playoff...In 1988 the Lynchburg Red Sox defeated the Salem Buccaneers two games to one in the NDCS...Lynchburg has been to the Carolina League finals 13 times, four times as the Hillcats...They are 5-8 in the championship round thus far and the Hillcats are 2-2...The Cats last played for a CL title in 2003 and were swept by Winston-Salem...Their last league title was in 2002 when they beat Kinston three games to one...This is Lynchburg's 19th trip to the post-season in the Carolina League and the sixth for the Hillcats...This is Salem's 10th trip into the Carolina League post-season (in 1974 their was no post-season and Salem was awarded Mills Cup), their first as the Red Sox...They have played in the Mills Cup series five times and won three of those series (not including 1974)...They last played in the championship round in 2007 and lost three games to one to the Frederick Keys...

VS. SALEM: The Hillcats went 10-10 against the Red Sox in the 460 rivalry this season, 5-5 at City Stadium and 5-5 at Memorial Ballpark...In the all-time series Lynchburg leads 467-459, they are 256-205 at Calvin Falwell Field and 160-172 at Lewis-Gale Field...The Cats batted .261 against the Sox and had a 3.42 ERA...The Sox batted .272 against the Cats with a 3.83 ERA...

LONG IN THE TOOTH: The Salem active roster features six players that are 25 years of age or older, the most of any team in the Carolina League (based on rosters from end of season)...They have the two oldest players in the league, INF Zach Boroviak (the oldest) and OF Brad Correll, both 28 years old...Correll played for the Hillcats in 2006, made his Carolina League debut in 2003 and has played parts of seven seasons at the Advanced-A level (five in the CL)...In addition, in game one of the Southern Division Championship Series RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka got a rehab start for Salem...The right-hander is 29 years of age (28 at the time of his start) and won 18 games last year for Boston...

COMEBACK CATS ARE BACK: Lynchburg has come from behind to win their last three games played...Last night they trailed 2-0 after two and a half innings before plating three runs in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead for good...In the first half of the season the Hillcats had 23 comeback wins in 69 games and had 37 on the season...

LATE LIFT: The Hillcats scored 12 runs in the final three innings of the last three games combined...Lynchburg had not scored a run after the sixth inning in their last ten games played prior to those three contests...Last night the Cats scored two in the seventh inning and four more in the eighth to put the game out of reach...

OFFENSE RESURFACING: Lynchburg has scored 19 runs in the last three games of the post-season after they scored just two runs in the first three games (29 innings)...They went 3-for-29 (.104) with men in scoring position in those first three contests and since then have gone 11-for-28 (.393) in the last three games...They have scored eight runs with two outs in the last three contests as well...

SENSATIONAL STAFF: The Hillcats pitching staff is posted a 1.61 ERA (10 earned runs in 56 innings) in the playoffs...Four of the ten earned runs they allowed came in game one of the NDCS...In the last five games they had a 1.15 ERA (six earned runs in 47 innings)...At one point in the post-season, they had thrown 20 straight shutout frames...The six Hillcats starters combined to allow four earned run in 34 innings of work (1.06 ERA)...The bullpen is sporting an earned run average of 2.46 and they are 3-for-3 in save opportunities...

BOOM ON THE BACK END: The bottom three in the Hillcats line-up last night went a combined 7-for-10 (.700) with a triple, a home run, four RBI and six runs scored...

SECRET OF THE GOO: 1B Matt Hague went 2-for-3 last night and is batting .409 (9-for-22) in the playoffs with two doubles, a triple, a homer, 3 RBI and 4 runs scored...He has hit in all six post-season games and combined with the end of the regular season he is now riding a 10-game hitting streak...Over that time he is hitting .405 (15-for-37)... He batted .314 (32-for-102) in August and was third in the Carolina League in the regular season with his .293 clip...

TODAY'S OPPOSING PITCHER: RHP Stephen Fife was selected by Boston in the third round of the 2008 draft out of the University of Utah...His final season with the Utes he went 7-5 with a 3.72 ERA in 14 starts...He made his professional debut last year with Short-Season Low-A Lowell, where he went 1-1 with a 2.33 ERA and two saves in 14 relief appearances...He began this season with full-season Low-A Greenville and had an 0-3 mark with a 2.70 ERA in eight starts with the Drive before earning a promotion to Advanced-A...Fife made 10 regular season starts with Salem and went 3-2 with a 4.44 ERA...Tonight will be his first playoff start for the Red Sox and his second start against Lynchburg...He started against the Hillcats in the season finale at City Stadium and took a no-decision, allowing five runs (four earned) in six innings of action...

REINFORCEMENT: RHP Ramon Aguero pitched two scoreless innings last night to earn the save in the Hillcats 9-2 win...He has now worked six scoreless frames in the post-season and has earned a hold and a save...Aguero returned from Double-A Altoona the day after the season ended, after he was promoted from Lynchburg on August 13th...In eight games with the Curve he went 0-2 with a 2.84 ERA with four saves...

UNDERDOG ON TOP: Last night Lynchburg won game five of the NDCS over Wilmington to win the Northern Division Championship...The Hillcats were tied for the worst record in the Carolina League in the second half of the season (28-42) and the Blue Rocks had the best record in the CL in the second part of the year (46-24)...The Cats went 5-15 against the Rocks during the regular season and entered the post-season with a nine-game losing streak against them...Wilmington was the only team in the Carolina League with a winning record versus Lynchburg this season...After July 24th, the Blue Crew went 33-10 after they started the second half 13-14...The Green & Gold dropped game one, but won three out of the next four games to take the best of five series...

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: In 2002 Lynchburg lost the season series to Wilmington 15-5 and lost game one of the NDCS by six runs (9-3), before winning the next game with a shutout en route to taking the best of three series...This season the Blue Rocks went 15-5 against the Hillcats and won game one by six (7-1) before the Cats came back and won game two with a shutout victory and then went on to win the series...The 2002 season was the last time Lynchburg won the CL...

ATTENDANCE TOPPING: The Hillcats broke their all-time attendance record this season that was set in 2007...Two years ago 164,413 fans filed through the gates to set the mark...After last night the 2009 attendance now sits at 166,168...The Cats have drawn more than 148,000 every season since the renovation of City Stadium was completed in 2004...

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: In the second half of the season Lynchburg batted 13 points higher than they did in the first half of the season (.259, .246 in the first) to raise their overall batting average to .253...However, after batting .267 with men in scoring position in the first half, they hit just .231 with RISP in the second to lower their season average to .248...

FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM: Over the last 10 games of the season Lynchburg collected 11 sacrifice hits (six sacrifice flies and five bunts)...All six of the sac flies came off the bat of INF Jordy Mercer, who led the team with 14 sac flies and 17 sac hits on the season...He had six sac flies in his last nine games played...The Hillcats had 98 sacrifice hits on the season, second most in the Carolina League...Their 52 sac flies were the most in the circuit...

BATTERED AND BRUISED: The Hillcats were hit by a pitch nine times in the last five games...On the season Lynchburg was hit by a pitch 97 times, the most of any team in the Carolina League...The next closest in the circuit is Winston-Salem with 72...

THIRTY SOMETHING: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette updated their top 30 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates system toward the end of the season with significant input from four of the top people in baseball operations...Of those thirty, seven are currently on the Hillcats roster, RHP Bryan Morris (9), LHP Jeff Locke (10), INF Chase d'Arnaud (11), LHP Rudy Owens (14), INF Jordy Mercer (23), UTIL Josh Harrison (26), RHP Nate Adcock (27)...Former Hillcat 3B Pedro Alvarez is still rated as the number one prospect in the system...

QUITE THE CATCH: C Tony Sanchez hit his first home run as a Hillcat last night in the top of the eighth inning to give Lynchburg a 4-2 lead that they would not relinquish...The Cats added him to their roster with three games left to play in the regular season, promoted from Low-A West Virginia...Sanchez was the fourth overall pick by the Pirates out of Boston College in this year's draft and was batting .316 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 46 RBI in 41 games played for the Power...He is the third fourth overall pick and the fourth top five overall pick to play for Lynchburg in the last two seasons (Pedro Alvarez, Daniel Moskos and Brad Lincoln)...

SLIPPING AWAY: Entering the seventh inning in the regular season finale, Lynchburg led 5-1 before allowing five runs in the final three innings...The Hillcats relinquished an advantage of four runs or more in two of the final three games of the season...In the first half of the season the Cats only lost after leading nine times in 69 games...In the second half they blew a lead 21 times in 70 contests...They also came back to win 23 times in the first half and only rallied to win 14 times in the second part of the campaign...

RUDY RED: LHP Rudy Owens dealt six scoreless innings on Thursday night and picked up his first playoff win for Lynchburg in his first ever post-season start...It was the 12th time this year the lefty has picked up a win, his longest start as a Cat and he matched his most strikeouts while donning the Green & Gold...This season he was named the Most Outstanding Pitcher in the South Atlantic League...The left-hander was also named by the SALLY to the post-season All-Star team...This after the southpaw was named the best pitching prospect in the SAL, with the best change-up and best control by Baseball America in their recent best tools article...He has also earned Pitcher-of-the-Week honors three times (twice in the SAL and once in the Carolina League)...The starter was a mid-season All-Star selection as well...

LOCKED IN: LHP Jeff Locke tossed five and 2/3 scoreless innings on Friday night in game three of the NDCS...In his last eight starts of the regular season the southpaw was 3-0 with a 2.58 ERA (13 earned runs in 45 and 1/3 innings)...In those eight appearances Locke has allowed one run or less six times...His last start of the regular campaign against Salem was his first outing this season with Lynchburg that he didn't allow a run in...

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: RHP Matt McSwain and RHP Ronald Uviedo were in the starting rotation to start the season and into the second half...Both have switched to a bullpen role and both played a key role in the NDCS win...McSwain earned a hold and a win with four scoreless innings of relief...Uviedo was 2-for-2 in save opportunities in the series...Out of McSwain's 90 games pitched in the regular season, 44 of them have been in relief...Uviedo has pitched 139 regular season games and 109 of them have been in relief...The right-hander has recorded 31 saves in the regular season, including three this season for the Hillcats...

GETTIN' ON AND GETTIN' IN: INF Chase d'Arnaud finished the regular season with 30 runs scored in his last 30 contests and had a .430 OBP (58-for-135) in those games...He hit in 25 of his last 30 games and batted .331 (40-for-121) over that time...The infielder was also chosen as one of the six representatives of the Pirates in the prestigious Arizona Fall League this off-season...

DRIVING 'EM IN: INF Jordy Mercer went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored on Monday afternoon...He drove in 22 runs in his last 24 games of the season and brought home a run in eight straight games (12 in those contests) prior to the final game of the campaign...He hit in 21 of his last 24 games and over that time he batted .304 (28-for-92) with six doubles, three homers, 22 RBI, 12 runs scored, seven walks and two stolen bases...He batted .303 (30-for-99) in August after he hit .226 (26-for-115) in July...Mercer led the Hillcats, finished fifth in the Carolina League and is currently second in the farm system with 83 RBI...He also was first in the league with 36 doubles...

THREE-BAGGIN': OF Alex Presley led the league this season with 11 triples and set the all-time single season record for the Hillcats...In 2006 he led the New York-Penn League in triples with three and he tied the school record for three-baggers at Ole Miss with 14...

MAC ATTACK: RHP Matt McSwain was named Carolina League Pitcher of-the-Week for the week of August 17th-23rd...It marked the second time this season a Hillcat hurler has garnered the award (LHP Rudy Owens, August 3rd-9th)...The right-hander now led the team with 11 wins and 144 and 1/3 innings...He tied for second in the league in wins, was third in innings pitched and sixth in earned run average (3.43)...McSwain was the Hillcats first 11-game winner since 2002...

RUSTED ROMAK: After returning from the Disabled List on August 11th, OF Jamie Romak batted .190 (19-for-100) with 28 strikeouts in 26 games played...The former Atlanta Braves farmhand has spent parts of three season with Lynchburg and his 36 home runs as a Hillcat sits three homers shy of Josh Bonifay for the most homers in team history...He is also 3rd in team history in doubles with 55 two-baggers...Romak did have four hits in his last three games played in the regular season (4-for-12), three of which were doubles...

PUT IN A PICKLE: RHP Harrison Bishop held opposing batters to a .184 batting average with the bases empty this season, but with RISP batters hit .373...

LOOKING FOR THE REAL THING: In the first three months of the season (31 and 1/3 innings) RHP Mike Colla only allowed three earned runs and was sporting a 0.86 ERA...After that though he had a 7.56 ERA (28 earned runs in 33 and 1/3 innings) the rest of the season to up his overall earned run average to 4.31...

BORN TO RUN: UTIL Jose De Los Santos stole 53 bases this season in 61 attempts (87% success rate)...Last year he stole 28 bags in 48 tries (58%)...He led the team in swipes, was third in the Carolina League and it was the fourth most stolen bases in a season in Hillcats history...His 67 steals in his career for Lynchburg places him third on the all-time list...

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Carolina League Stories from September 15, 2009


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