Sean Brady surrendered a leadoff triple in the first inning, but he proceeded to retire the next 16 batters on his way to seven shutout innings. David Speer and Trevor Frank each worked a scoreless frame in relief to combine for Lynchburg’s league-leading eighth shutout of the season in a 4-0 victory at Frawley Stadium Tuesday.
Sean Brady (6-3) gave up a leadoff triple to Cody Jones, who lined the ball over Greg Allen’s head in center field to start the first. However, Brady recovered quickly with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to strand Jones at third. Brady did not allow another man to reach base until a one-out walk in the sixth.
Brady retired 16 in a row during that stretch, striking out six and inducing eight groundouts during that span. The ball only left the infield six times all night with Brady on the mound, two hits and four flyouts. Brady notched seven strikeouts, which fell one shy of a career high he set against Wilmington on May 26.
David Speer worked a perfect eighth inning with a strikeout and two flyouts, while Trevor Frank completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth. Zach Lovvorn (0-9) struck out a career high 10 for Wilmington but took the loss after giving up four runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 frames. As a team, Wilmington fanned 17 Hillcats batters in the game.
After an hour and 40-minute rain delay, Greg Allen opened the game with a bunt single to third base. He advanced to third on a bad pickoff throw and scored two batters later on an RBI double by Anthony Santander. The Hillcats led the rest of the way, tacking on three more in the fourth.
Yu-Cheng Chang began the fourth with a walk. Two batters later, Taylor Murphy laced a double off the first baseman to put two runners in scoring position. With two outs in the frame, Mark Mathias doubled to bring in both runners and push the score to 3-0.Allen followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0.
Lynchburg leads the Carolina League with eight shutouts as a pitching staff and remains the only team to have avoided a shutout offensively all season long…Every other team in the league has been shutout at least three times in 2016…Anthony Santanderwent 3-5 and leads the team with six three-hit games this year…Allen finished 2-4 to log his team-best 22nd multi-hit game.
Lynchburg will send Anderson Polanco (3-1, 1.82) to the mound Wednesday against righty Corey Ray (3-2, 3.41). First pitch at Frawley Stadium is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. 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.
Share
Chris Graham
