On Saturday night, the Hillcats saw their catcher ejected, lost their designated hitter, and had two pitchers come to the plate. However, when the dust settled, Lynchburg earned a 6-2 win over the Winston-Salem Dash.
The Dash scored first in the top of the fifth inning. Tyler Saladino hit a two-run home run with two outs to give Winston-Salem the early 2-0 lead.
The home run wasn’t the only explosion in the inning. After Hillcats starter Blaine Sims threw a four-pitch walk, catcher Christian Bethancourt was ejected from the game for arguing the calls. The other catcher on the Hillcats roster, Shawn McGill, was in the lineup as a designated hitter. McGill had to come in as a catcher, which meant that Lynchburg lost the DH, and the pitcher had to bat.
After Dash starter Jake Petricka pitched five dazzling innings, the Hillcats got to him in the sixth. Barrett Kleinknecht led off with a bunt single. L.V. Ware hit a shot out to center field that got over the head of center fielder Jared Mitchell. Kleinknecht came around to score and Ware ended up on second for the first run of the game for the Hillcats. Marcus Lemon walked, and Andrelton Simmons bunted both runners over. Phil Gosselin laced a single over the head of third baseman Kyle Eveland, and both runners came in to score, giving the Hillcats a 3-2 lead. McGill was hit by a pitch, and then Terdoslavich grounded into a fielders choice, putting runners on the corners with one out. Geraldo Rodriguez then pinch-hit for Sims, who had grounded out in his first professional at-bat in the fifth inning. Rodriguez doubled to center, both runners scored, and the Hillcats ended the inning leading 5-2.
The Hillcats scored again in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI double by Joey Terdoslavich,to make it 6-2. Andrew Russell also made his first Minor League at-bat in that inning, pinch hitting for Andrew Wilson, who had come into the game after Rodriguez pinch-hit. Russell, a slugger in the Australian Baseball League, ended up striking out.
The 6-2 score held up for the rest of the game, and the Hillcats snapped their five-game skid and avoided the sweep.
Sims (3-4) earned the win while Petricka (0-4) took the loss. Lynchburg’s record improved to 7-15 in the second half, while Winston-Salem fell to 11-11.
The Hillcats head out on a 12-day, 11-game road trip on Sunday. They travel to Potomac to take on the Nationals in a 6:05 pm game. Aaron Shafer (2-2) will pitch for the Hillcats, and Paul Demny (6-7) will pitch for the Nationals.
The Hillcats On-Deck Show presented by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg will go on the air at 5:40 pm. Tune in to 105.5 KD Country or go to lynchburg-hillcats.com to listen live to all the action.
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