Tyler Krieger homered for the second time in as many nights, and Francisco Mejia hit safely in his 27th straight game to help Lynchburg defeat Carolina, 7-3, at Five County Stadium Friday night.
Trailing 1-0 in the third, Tyler Krieger stepped to the plate with the bases empty and one out. The fourth-round pick from last year hit one off the scoreboard in right-center field to tie the game.
Lynchburg built a big lead by scoring in three consecutive innings from the fifth through the seventh. The Hillcats plated three in the fifth. Greg Allen opened the stanza with a single, and walks to Krieger and Bobby Bradley loaded the bases. With one out,Luigi Rodriguez drew a walk to bring home Allen and break the tie. Mejia hit a sacrifice fly to center field, and Taylor Murphyproduced a two-out RBI with a base hit to give the ‘Cats a 4-1 advantage.
The Hillcats added another in the sixth when Paul Hendrix walked, Anthony Santander eventually drove him in with a two-out single. Lynchburg used three walks to load the bases in the seventh. Mark Mathias picked up two RBIs with a base hit to right-center field to stretch the margin to 7-1. Carolina scored twice in the ninth to make the final score 7-3.
Luke Eubank (2-2) earned the victory with two perfect innings out of the bullpen, including three strikeouts. He took over forMitch Brown, who went four innings in his start. Brown only surrendered one run on one hit in his four frames. However, he needed 93 pitches to make it through four due to a combination of seven strikeouts and seven walks. The seven free passes tied a career high for Brown.
Cam Hill also tossed two perfect innings out of the bullpen for Lynchburg. For Carolina, Ryan Clark (0-10) suffered his 10th loss in 15 starts. He allowed four runs on five hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings.
Tyler Krieger had three home runs in 69 games at Lake County and now has a pair of home runs in his first week with Lynchburg…Krieger also stole his first base with Lynchburg after swiping 15 bags for the Captains…Every Hillcat in the lineup either had an RBI or a run scored.
Lynchburg will try to make it three in a row at Five County Stadium Saturday night at 7 p.m. Justus Sheffield (5-4, 4.00) will start for the Hillcats against fellow Carolina League All-Star Max Povse (5-4, 3.65). 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
