The Lynchburg Hillcats picked up their fifth walk-off win of the season with a 4-3 extra-inning win over the Potomac Nationals Thursday night at City Stadium. Trent Moses lined a double to left-center to drive in David Rohm before an out was recorded in the tenth for the winning run. John Cornely pitched two scoreless innings of relief to get his third win of the season.
Rohm led off the tenth with a single then Josh Elander was hit by a pitch while trying to lay down a sacrifice bunt for Trent Moses, who lined a single to left-center field to drive in Rohm and give the Hillcats their fifth walk-off win.
After the Hillcats (11-19, 47-52) had a runner thrown out at the plate in the first inning and two stranded in scoring position in the second, three unearned runs finally got Lynchburg on the board in the third.
Josh Elander hit a one out single then got to third when Potomac 3B Mike Gilmartin made two errors on one grounder from Trent Moses, putting runners at the corners. Kyle Kubitza bounced into a fielder’s choice that scored Elander for the game’s first run. Later Shawn McGill bounced a ball out in front of the plate that he beat out for an infield single, allowing two runners to score and giving the Hillcats a 3-0 lead after three innings.
Jarett Miller did not allow a run through four innings but Potomac (18-13, 60-40) got to him in the fifth. Back-to-back RBI extra-base hits from Francisco Soriano and Billy Burns got the Nationals within one. With one out and Burns at third, Caleb Ramsey tried a suicide squeeze to plate Burns but Miller fielded the bouncing ball with a bare hand and flipped to McGill, who held his ground through a collision to cut down Burns and keep the Hillcats ahead for the time being.
The Nationals tied the game the next inning with consecutive two-out hits, including an RBI-double from Gilmartin, to make it 3-3. Miller took a no decision in six innings of work; giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out three.
John Cornely (3-1) got the win while Cameron Selik (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth but couldn’t get an out in the tenth to take the loss.
The Hillcats and Nationals get back at it Friday at 7:05pm for game three of the series. The first 1,000 fans through the gates, which open at 6pm, will get a Military-themed cap presented by the U.S. Army and WLNI. Williams Perez (2-0, 0.75) takes the mound for Lynchburg against Sammy Solis (0-0, 3.75) for Potomac. If you can’t get to the game join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for the broadcast starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, going live at 6:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com
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Chris Graham
