Lynchburg Hillcats fall 2-1 to Frederick Keys

The Lynchburg Hillcats gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth without a ball leaving the infield to drop Wednesday’s game, 2-1, to the Frederick Keys at Harry Grove Stadium.  A.J. Holland went eight innings of one-run baseball but got a no decision in the loss.  Elmer Reyes hit his second home run of the season to provide the Hillcats offense.  The Hillcats went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the game.

Ryan Woolley took the mound for the Hillcats (30-27) in the ninth and walked the leadoff hitter Christian Walker. After he was sacrificed to second, Woolley (0-2) intentionally walked Travis Adair.  Sammie Starr followed up with a slow-rolling ground ball up the middle that Reyes dove to keep in the infield to keep the ‘Cats alive but a walk to the next batter Delvi Cid forced in the game-winning run.

Holland walked the first two Keys (32-26) batters of the bottom of the first and an errant pickoff attempt put runners at the corners.  After picking up a strikeout, Holland gave up a ground ball RBI-single to Walker.  It was Walker’s fourth RBI of the series and made it 1-0 Keys after one.

The ‘Cats evened up the ballgame with a solo home run from Reyes to lead off the third.  It was the first hit of the game for Lynchburg after Eduardo Rodriguez had walked one through two innings.

Rodriguez was equally as dominant as Holland, going seven innings and giving up one run on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.  He was able to strand a runner in scoring position in each of his final two innings on the mound. Jesse Beal (1-0) pitched two hitless innings of relief to get the win.

The Hillcats look to earn a series split in game four on Thursday.  Ryan Weber (3-1, 2.75) takes the mound for Lynchburg, taking on Brady Wager, who makes his Carolina League debut for the Keys.  First pitch is set for 7pmand you can join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for all the play-by-play action starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, going live at 6:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com.