Lynchburg’s offense exploded for 18 runs in only 10 turns at the plate to win a pair of games against Potomac, 12-5 and 8-3, Wednesday night at City Stadium. Bobby Bradley hit a grand slam to highlight a six-run fifth inning in the first contest, and the Hillcats also put a six-spot on the board in the first inning of game two.
After Monday’s game was suspended in the fifth inning and Tuesday was rained out, the Hillcats finally took the field to resume the contest from two days ago, facing a 4-2 deficit in the top of the fifth. Jordan Milbrath retired the first three batters he faced to quickly give the Hillcats their turn at the plate.
Daniel Salters opened the big inning with a double to left-center field. Two batters later, Ivan Castillo lined a sharp single to right to bring the ‘Cats within one, 4-3. Castillo advanced to third on a stolen base and throwing error, which allowed Greg Allento score him with a single to right field and tie the score. Yu-Cheng Chang singled, and Anthony Santander walked to load the bases.
In a 4-4 contest with the bases loaded and one out, Bobby Bradley hit a 1-2 breaking ball over the right field fence to break the tie and give the Hillcats the lead for the rest of the way. Bradley is now tied for the league lead with seven home runs and tops the Carolina League with 27 RBIs.
Lynchburg added four more in the seventh on an RBI single by Taylor Murphy, a two-run double by Dorssys Paulino, and an RBI double by Claudio Bautista. Murphy’s base hit extended his hitting streak to 15 games, but he snapped it in the second game on an 0-4 night.
Milbrath (2-1) earned the win by only surrendering one run in three innings of relief. He tied a season high with five strikeouts and only allowed one hit. David Speer and Cameron Hill each had one scoreless inning of relief to seal the win.
Potomac scored the first run of the second contest on a base hit by Raudy Read that brought home Andrew Stevenson, who had doubled to begin the game.
Lynchburg answered with six runs on seven hits in the home half to take control of the game en route to an 8-3 victory. Greg Allen singled, advanced to second on a passed ball and came home on a base hit by Yu-Cheng Chang to tie the game in just two batters. Anthony Santander singled, and a Bobby Bradley single put the Hillcats in front when Chang scored.
With the ‘Cats leading 2-1 and two outs in the first, Mark Mathias came through with a clutch two-run single to push the margin to 4-1. Claudio Bautista doubled home Mathias and Sicnarf Loopstok to make it 6-1 heading into the second. Mike Papipicked up an RBI in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly that plated Chang, and Bautista notched the final Lynchburg run when he touched home on a base hit by Chang.
Justus Sheffield (3-1) went 5 1/3 innings, conceding three runs on eight hits to earn the victory. Cole Sulser tossed the final 1 2/3, striking out two to improve Lynchburg to a Carolina League-best 19-7 mark for the season.
Lynchburg will play Potomac again to makeup Tuesday’s rainout next Monday, May 9, at 6 p.m…Lynchburg has a league-high 24 home runs this season…Bradley’s grand slam is the second in the Carolina League…It was the first by a Hillcat since LeVon Washington’s against Winston-Salem on August 2, 2015…Taylor Murphy’s 15-game hitting streak is the second-longest in the Carolina League this season.
Lynchburg begins a four-game series against Carolina Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Mitch Brown (1-1, 5.40) will start for Lynchburg. Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com, beginning with the Hillcats On-Deck Show at 6:15 p.m.
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Chris Graham
