Lynchburg defeated Myrtle Beach 9-3, behind a strong start from Sean Brady and plenty of run support from the offense. Greg Allen led off the bottom of the first with his second leadoff and third overall homer of the season. The ‘Cats tallied five runs on five hits and three errors in the seventh frame to put the game out of reach and win the series opener.
Lynchburg used a whopping seven extra-base hits to fuel the offense Thursday. The Pelicans opened up the game with a run in the first inning after two leadoff walks and an eventual wild pitch. Allen wasted no time tying the game up by delivering a line drive shot over the right field wall. The Hillcats used a two-out rally to tack on another run in the fourth. Daniel Salters singled and came around to score on a Mark Mathias double. Lynchburg added another run in the sixth frame. Anthony Santander laid down a base hit bunt and got to third after a Bobby Bradley single. Yu-Cheng Chang hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-1.
Sicnarf Loopstok and Bobby Ison lead off the seventh inning with back-to-back doubles in the seventh inning to make the score 4-1. Allen singled to bring in Ison for his second RBI of the game. A few batters later, Bradley doubled on a tough fly ball to shallow left field to allow Allen to score. Chang tripled to center and made the score 7-1. Gleyber Torres answered with a two-run homer in the eighth, but it was too late to mount a comeback.
Brady notched his fourth win of the season as he bounced back from a rough last start. The lefty went 6 1/3 innings and only allowed two hits and one earned run. He struck out four Pelicans batters and lowered his ERA to 5.16 on the season. David Speer pitched out of the bullpen and was very effective aside from a two-run home run that he surrendered. Jordan Milbrathpitched a scoreless ninth frame to secure the victory. The only baserunner he allowed was via a walk, but he did strike out one batter as well.
Allen tied a career high with four hits as he hit a homer and a two-bagger to collect eight total bases… All nine batters reached base for the Hillcats in tonight’s contest…The ‘Cats win coupled with a Potomac loss dropped the magic number to clinch a first-half Northern Division championship to four.
Lynchburg will be back in action for the second game of the homestand against the Pelicans Friday at 6:30 p.m. The Hillcats will send Nick Pasquale (1-1, 2.49) to the mound, and the Pelicans will counter with Jonathan Martinez (3-3, 4.66). Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com, beginning with the Hillcats On-Deck Show at 6:15 p.m.
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