The Lynchburg Hillcats opened their final home stand of the season with a 3-1 win over the Frederick Keys Saturday night at City Stadium. Greg Ross tied a career high with eight strikeouts while picking up his second straight win. Kyle Kubitza, Trent Moses and Daniel Castro drove in the runs for the Hillcats.
Despite just four combined runs, the Hillcats (30-30, 66-62) and Keys (23-37, 57-72) combined for 22 hits with Lynchburg accounting for 12 of them. Both starters gave up plenty of hits but combined for just one walk as they limited the opposition. Ross has now allowed one earned run in 20 innings against Frederick this season.
After going hitless in the four-game series against Carolina, Matt Lipka led off the bottom of the first with a double to center field and was sacrificed over to third before an RBI groundout by Kubitza gave the Hillcats the early lead. The Hillcats did not score first in any of the four games in Zebulon, N.C. but got the home stand started on the right foot.
Frederick responded immediately with a run in the second. Zane Chavez doubled to lead off the frame and was immediately driven home on a Travis Adair single. A third straight Key hit before Ross retired the next three in order.
The Hillcats regained the lead in the sixth. David Rohm and Josh Elander led off with back-to-back singles to put runners at first and third. After a strikeout, Trent Moses hit a chopper to short and beat out the backend of a would-be double play to allow the go-ahead run to score.
After a base running blunder early in the game, Lipka made amends by hustling out a shallow bloop liner into a double with two outs in the seventh inning. He advanced on a wild pitch then scored on a Castro single to give the Hillcats an important insurance run.
Greg Ross (9-6) got the win while matching his season high in innings pitched (7) and matching a career mark of strikeouts in a game with eight. Brady Wager (3-9) took the loss in a six-inning, two-run outing. John Cornely pitched a perfect ninth inning for his tenth save of the season.
The Hillcats look for more separation from the Keys in this wild card race on Sunday. First pitch is 6:05pm with gates opening at 5pmfor another Faith Night at City Stadium. Jarett Miller (8-7, 3.68) goes for Lynchburg against Zach Davies (7-7, 3.40) for the Keys. Erik Wilson and Jake Levy have the broadcast starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, at 5:40pmon 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com
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