The Lynchburg Hillcats couldn’t take full advantage of three Frederick Keys errors in a 9-4 loss Tuesday night.
It would be Michael Mosby that led the offensive charge for Frederick with five RBI. Offensively, the ‘Cats putup 11 hits of their own but could muster just four runs.
It was a quiet start for both the Hillcats and Keys in the series opener at Calvin Falwell Field. However, it would be Michael Lee that would crack first for the Hillcats.
In the top of the fourth it would be one hit that led to three runs. Jeremy Nowak reached on a dropped third strike before Lee plunked Allan de San Miguel to put the first two runners of the inning on. With one out, Travis Adair would be intentionally walked after Lee fell behind 2-1 in the count. The bases were loaded for Michael Mosby and he made them pay with a bases-clearing triple to give the Keys a 3-0 lead.
The ‘Cats bounced back with two of their own in the bottom of the fourth off of Trent Howard. It started with a Nick Ahmed single, which was followed by Adam Milligan hitting a sinking liner out to right field that Steve Bumbry misplayed. That error allowed Milligan to advance to second, Ahmed to score and cut the lead to 3-1. Salcedo would come up two batters later and hit a hard grounder that was misplaced by Garabez Rosa at short, Ahmed scored on the error and the ‘Cats would trail 3-2 after four.
Lynchburg added another run in the bottom of the fifth. Bobby Stevens led off with a double against his former team. Matt Weaver followed with a bunt down the first base line, Tyler Townsend gathered the bunt and threw it over Adair’s head. Stevens scored to tie the game at 3-3.
The tie was short-lived for the ‘Cats as the top of the sixth was just as rough as the fourth. Two runners were on with two outs for Mosby and he was clutch again. This time, Mosby delivered a double to clear the bases and get his fifth RBI of the game. The score was 5-1 until Rosa followed Mosby with his own double. Mosby scored and Lee’s day was after the lead swelled to 6-3.
Keeping with the pattern, the Keys would score three in the eighth. Back-to-back doubles would be followed by back-to-back walks to make it a 7-3 game. Trent Mummy grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Adair and push the lead to 8-3. Finally, Glynn Davis added his first hit of the day to score Rosa and extend the lead at 9-3.
One last valiant effort for the ‘Cats would push the score to 9-4 thanks to a Matt Weaver RBI single.
Howard earned his third win of the season by giving up just one earned run on seven hits. Lee got his second loss in his ugliest start as a Hillcat. He went five and two-thirds, allowed six runs, walked a career-high five and surrendered five hits. Ryan Berry would get his ninth save of the season for his three and two-thirds innings of work.
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