'Cats fall in see-saw battle

A game that was tied three times ended up going Wilmington’s way, as the Blue Rocks beat the Hillcats 4-3 on Wednesday night. Wilmington used a two-run eighth inning to finally put the feisty Hillcats away.

Each team scored in the first inning. The Blue Rocks took advantage of a throwing error by Andrelton Simmons to score the first run of the game. The Hillcats answered in the bottom half of the inning when Phil Gosselin hit a sacrifice fly that scored Keenan Wiley from third.

The Blue Rocks retook the lead in the top of the second inning. Jose Bonilla doubled to lead off the inning. He advanced to third on a single by Alex McClure, and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Joey Lewis.

The Hillcats got the run back in the bottom of the third. Joey Terdoslavich stepped to the plate with two outs and Gosselin at first. He hit a long drive to center field, that bounced high off the wall. Gosselin scored, and Terdoslavich ended up with a triple, tying the game at 2.

The game remained 2-2 for the next several innings. Finally, in the bottom of the seventh, the Hillcats took the lead for the first time in the game. L.V. Ware led off the inning with a walk. Wiley sacrificed him to second, and Simmons grounded out to second, which advanced Ware to third. With Gosselin at the plate, reliever Dusty Odenbach threw a wild pitch. Ware dashed home, and the throw from catcher Jose Bonilla went over the glove of Odenbach and hit Ware, allowing him to score and give the Hillcats a 3-2 lead.

The lead, like the previous leads, didn’t hold up for long. John Whittleman hit a leadoff home run in the top of the eighth to tie the game at 3. The next batter, Tim Ferguson walked. Bonilla sacrificed him to second, and then Ferguson moved to third on a wild pitch. Alex McClure singled over a drawn-in infield to give the Blue Rocks a 4-3 lead, which would hold up for the rest of the game.

Odenbach (1-0) picked up the win for Wilmington, while Andrew Wilson (1-2) took the loss in the relief for the Hillcats. Ryan Dennick pitched a perfect ninth to earn his third save of the year.

Lynchburg fell to 29-37 while Wilmington improved to 34-31.

The Hillcats start a four-game series with the Kinston Indians at home tomorrow, the final four games of the first half. Righty Aaron Shafer (1-0) will face lefty Drew Pomeranz (2-2). First pitch is at 7:05 pm with the gates opening 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.