Errors, late homer costly for Lynchburg

The Hillcats out hit the Keys tonight 9-8 but committed three errors while Frederick played mistake free and fell 7-4. A late home run for Aaron Baker in his Keys debut put Frederick up for good 6-4 in the seventh.

The initial lead belonged to Lynchburg in the fourth. Joey Terdoslavich launched his 41st double of the season off the centerfield wall scoring Phil Gosselin from first. Terdoslavich would later score on a sacrifice fly hit by Christian Bethancourt and the Hillcats led 2-0.

Then while the Hillcats took the field in the bottom of the first, the infield sprinklers turned on trapping starting pitcher Blaine Sims on the mound and causing his infield to scatter. After that, things started to go the way of the Keys.

With the bases loaded and two outs, and one run already in, Kipp Schutz hit a ground ball to Andrelton Simmons at shortstop. Simmons bobbled the ball, and then threw to first while falling over. His throw came up short and went past Terdoslavich at first base. Two runs would score on the play and Simmons was charged with both a fielding and a throwing error. Frederick led 3-2.

Another error hurt the ‘Cats in the fifth. Sims walked the lead off man Dale Mollenhauer. Then an errant pick-off attempt sent Mollenhauer to third. Manny Machodo would single him home two batters later after a shallow fly to right field. The next two batters flew out as well and the run went unearned.

The Hillcats tied the game up with two runs in the sixth. Gosselin and Terdoslavich led the charge once again. Gosselin singled in front of yet another Terdoslavich double. Keys’ starter Ryohei Tanake was then relieved by lefty Will Startup. His first pitch went in the dirt past the catcher and Gosselin came in to score. Then, Joe Leonard hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Terdoslavich and the game was tied 4-4.

Baker spoiled the Hillcats night with a two-run homer in the seventh, his 16th of the season and first as a Key. Baker was just acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade for Baltimore Orioles first baseman Derrek Lee.

Frederick added another run in the eighth to go up 7-4 heading into the ninth.

Closer Sean Gleason entered the game and retired the side in order to record his league leading 31st save of the season.

Kenny Moreland (2-0) earned the win in relief tossing one and one-third scoreless, finishing the seventh and eight innings. Mark Lamm (1-1) took the loss for Lynchburg after surrendering three earned runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

The Hillcats fell to 13-24 in the second half and remain in fourth place in the Carolina League Northern Division.

Frederick will host the ‘Cats again tomorrow night at 7:00 pm. LHP Chris Masters (6-5) will start for the Hillcats against LHP Nick Haughian (8-4) for the Keys. Listen live to all the action starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg on 105.5 KD Country and online at lynchburg-hillcats.com.