The Lynchburg Hillcats polished off a sweep of the Winston-Salem Dash with a 6-4 victory Wednesday night at City Stadium. The Hillcats scored the tying and eventual winning runs on wild pitches in the fourth inning. Wilson Rivera threw three scoreless innings out of the bullpen for the win. Daniel Castro had two hits, a run and an RBI in the win. The Hillcats won despite four errors on the night. It’s the first sweep for the ‘Cats at City Stadium since May 27-29.
The Hillcats (21-26, 57-59) and Dash (24-26, 63-58) traded runs in the first inning. Hillcats starter A.J. Holland made an error on a pickoff attempt to allow Joey DeMichele to score the games first run in the top half. David Rohm singled home Matt Lipka in the home half to tie it at 1-1.
The Hillcats plated two runs in the second inning, leading off the frame with three straight hits. Elmer Reyes led off with a single, Trent Moses hit his first triple of his professional career to drive in Reyes then scored on a Castro line drive single, it was 3-1 Hillcats after two innings.
The Dash tied it up with two runs in the third inning. Mark Haddow singled home Kevin Smith and Courtney Hawkins stopped at third on the play but scored on a wild pitch during the next at bat. A sacrifice fly in the fourth gave the Dash a brief lead, but it would be all Hillcats from there.
Two wild pitches led to two runs in the fourth with Reyes and Castro coming in to score. Dash manager Ryan Newman and pitching coach J.R. Perdew were both ejected during that fourth inning for arguing that Lipka’s follow through knocked a would-be foul tip strike three out of the catcher Kevan Smith’s glove.
Rivera (6-0) pitched three scoreless innings for the win while Braulio Ortiz (0-4) gave up five runs on five hits in five innings to take the loss. John Cornely pitched a perfect ninth inning for his fifth save of the season.
The Hillcats finish the season with a 14-6 regular season record against the Dash. They begin a three-game set with the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Wednesday at City Stadium. It’s the last Win-Win Wednesday of the season, with fans getting a free ticket to our doubleheader on Wednesday August 28 against the Carolina Mudcats. It’s also University of Virginia night at the ballpark with gates opening at 6pm for the 7:05pm first pitch. Greg Ross (7-5, 3.43) takes the ball for Lynchburg against Sam Selman (9-8, 3.53) for the Blue Rocks. Erik Wilson has the broadcast starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com
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Chris Graham
