CarL1 Lynchburg Hillcats

Opportunistic Hillcats Take Down Red Sox

June 7, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release


Lynchburg, VA- The Hillcats took advantage of two Red Sox errors and scored five unearned runs en route to an 8-5 win on Tuesday night.

Salem took an early lead, scoring three in the top of the first. They recorded five hits in the inning, including four straight with two outs.

Geraldo Rodriguez led off the bottom of the second inning with a double. Braeden Schlehuber then hit an infield single, putting runners on the corners. Keenan Wiley lifted a shallow fly ball to left field, and when David Mailman caught it, Rodriguez challenged his arm, tagging up and heading for the plate. He was able to slide around the tag of catcher Dan Butler to score the first run for the Hillcats.

The Hillcats took the lead in the fourth inning. With L.V. Ware on base, Salem third baseman Kolbrin Vitek committed an error, allowing Todd Cunningham to reach first. Andrelton Simmons doubled both runners home to tie the game at three. Two batters later, Adam Milligan hit a home run to left giving the Hillcats a 5-3 lead.

Salem cut into the lead in the top of the fifth. Reynaldo Rodriguez singled home Vitek to make the score 5-4.

Lynchburg took advantage of another error in the bottom of the fifth. Schlehuber stood on second when Keenan Wiley dropped down a bunt. The pitcher, Will Latimer, fielded the ball, and tried to flip it to first straight from his glove. The ball got past the first baseman and rolled towards the bullpen in right field. Schlehuber scored and Wiley ended up on third. He scored a batter later when LV Ware hit a sacrifice fly to right, which put the Hillcats up 7-4.

In the top of the sixth inning, Schlehuber was ejected after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Aaron Roberts. He became the first Hillcats player to be ejected this season.

Peter Hissey manufactured a run for Salem in the top of the seventh. He singled with one out. He then stole second and third, and scored on a groundout by Vitek to cut the lead to two.

Cunningham added another run in the bottom of the eighth inning. He turned on the first pitch he saw to lead off the inning, driving it over the right field fence to make it 8-5. That score held up for the rest of the game, despite Ryan Buchter facing a bases-loaded scare in the ninth inning. He struck out Reynaldo Rodriguez to end the game and earned his second save for the Hillcats.

Zeke Spruill worked five innings, giving up four runs, to pick up the win and move to 4-6. Ryan Pressly gave up six runs, though only two were earned, and took the loss to move to 4-5.

As of May 7, Salem had the best record record in the Carolina League at 20-7, 13 games above .500. Lynchburg at the time was 10-17. One month later, the two teams sit with identical 26-31 records.

Hillcats righty Willie Kempf (3-4) will face righty Anthony Ranaudo (0-1) in the third game of the four-game series Wednesday night. First pitch is at 7:05 pm, gates will open at 6.

If you can't make it to the game, the Hillcats On-Deck Show presented by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg will go on the air at 6:40 pm. Tune in to 105.5 KD Country or go to lynchburg-hillcats.com to listen live to all the action.

Check out the Lynchburg Hillcats Statistics



Carolina League Stories from June 7, 2011


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