Hillcats bats silenced by Pelicans in 2-1 loss

Lynchburg dropped a 2-1 contest to Myrtle Beach Saturday night. A pitchers’ duel between Julian Merryweather and Zach Hedges limited both offenses to a combined 11 hits. Greg Allen and Bobby Bradley recorded two hits for the ‘Cats in the loss.

Two Carolina League All-Stars threw their entire repertoire to keep the opposing offenses off-balance throughout the game Merryweatherpitched 6 1/3 innings but earned his second loss of the season to make his record 7-2. The righty came one strikeout short of a career high with eight and did not allow one walk. Gioskar Amaya homered in the third inning to make the count 1-0.

Merryweather allowed a double in the seventh inning before he was pulled. The runner came around to score on a fielding error at first base to give the Pelicans a 2-1 lead. Both of Merryweather’s losses this season were due to unearned runs. Zach Hedges (6-4) had one of his best performances against the Hillcats. He threw a season high 7 2/3 frames and only allowed one run on five hits.

The Hillcats offense struggled to string together baserunners and hits. Their lone run of the contest came in the fourth inning after a leadoff single from Taylor Murphy. Bradley singled to allow Murphy to scamper to third. Yu-Cheng Chang grounded out to bring in Murphy and tie the game. Bradley came up a few feet short of a game-tying homer in the ninth inning as the ball hit off the right field wall.

Lynchburg is still the only Carolina League team to not be shutout in a game this season as they scratched across one run tonight…Both teams were 0-5 with runners in scoring in position in the game…The Hillcats magic number dropped down to one due to a pair of Potomac Nationals’ losses.

Lynchburg will attempt to clinch the first-half title Sunday at 2 p.m. Manager Mark Budzinski will give the ball to LHP Luis Lugo (2-2, 4.97).  Myrtle Beach will counter with Trevor Clifton (4-3, 2.08). 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 1:45 p.m.