Home runs by Austin Wynns and T.J. Olesczuk on consecutive pitches in the fourth inning turned a 2-0 Hillcats advantage into a 3-2 deficit, and Lynchburg never recovered in a 5-2 loss at City Stadium Sunday afternoon. It marked the Hillcats’ first loss since April 13, snapping a 10-game winning streak.
Lynchburg claimed a 2-0 lead in the second inning on four consecutive hits. Daniel Salters started the two-out rally with a base hit, and Taylor Murphy singled to right field. Claudio Bautista legged out a comebacker, which plated Salters for the first run of the game. Ivan Castillo singled to center to bring home Murphy, but Bautista was thrown out trying to advance to third to end the inning.
In the fourth, things changed suddenly on two pitches. With one on and two out, Austin Wynns hit a two-run homer over the left field fence to tie the contest, 2-2. On the next pitch, T.J. Olesczuk hit a ball in nearly an identical spot to push Frederick in front.
Frederick added a run in the fifth and a run in the eighth to lead the final outcome. In the fifth, three straight singles by Erick Salcedo, Josh Hart, and Steve Wilkerson resulted in a run and helped knock Luis Lugo from the game.
Lugo (1-1) suffered the loss after giving up four runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one. John Means (3-0) held the Hillcats offense to two runs on six hits while striking out striking out six in six frames. He earned the win, and Michael Zouzalik picked up his second save of the season with two shutout innings of relief.
Frederick’s final run came in the eighth on an RBI single by Olesczuk that drove in Aderlin Rodriguez. The Keys ended their five-game losing streak and prevented Lynchburg from sweeping them in a four-game series at City Stadium for the first time since 2005.
Taylor Murphy stretched his hitting streak to 10 games on a 1-3 day at the plate…Mike Papi walked in his final plate appearance to push his season-opening on-base streak to 16, which ranks second in the Carolina League…This represented the first loss for Lynchburg after scoring the initial run of the game. The Hillcats had been 12-0 when scoring first this year…Greg Allen did not score a run for the first time in 10 contests…He still leads the Carolina League with 20 runs in only 16 games played.
Lynchburg has its first Off Day of the season Monday before hitting the road Tuesday for a two-city, six game trip. The Hillcats will open the road swing with a three-game series at Winston-Salem Tuesday night at 7 p.m. 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 6:45 p.m.
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Chris Graham
