The Lynchburg Hillcats woke up the bats tonight, but eight runs on 13 hits wasn’t enough as they fell 10-8 to the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Kyle Kubitza led the Lynchburg offense with a 3-for-3 effort. He drew a pair of walks, drove in two runs and scored three times. The Hillcats attempted a late comeback scoring twice in the ninth inning without hitting the ball out of the infield, but ultimately dropped their second straight in Wilmington.
Kubitza put the Hillcats (17-26, 53-59) on top in the first inning with a one-out RBI-double. Daniel Castro came in to score after reaching on an error. Josh Elander singled home Kubitza with two outs and the ‘Cats took a 2-0 lead. Both runs went unearned against Blue Rocks (20-26, 53-63) starter Kellen Moen. The lead was short-lived as Wilmington answered with four runs in the bottom of the first. Yem Prades tripled following Justin Trapp’s one-out double. A ground out to shortstop off the bat of Jerad Schlehuber brought Prades into score. With the bases empty and two outs, Hillcats starter Greg Ross walked Tim Ferguson. He then struck out Daniel Mateo, but the pitch got behind catcher Chase Anselment on a passed ball. Both runners would come around to score, and both went unearned against Ross.
Another error in the second inning allowed Prades to reach base and eventually score on a double from Schlehuber. Ross allowed a total of six runs on the night and only three were earned. He made it through the fifth allowing another run in the third but getting through his final two frames facing the minimum.
The Hillcats offense continued to battle. Moen walked Castro and Kubitza to start the third inning and then abruptly came out of the game after just 36 pitches. Daniel Hernandez entered in relief. He gave up a single to David Rohm which drove in Castro. Kubitza scored on the play as well due to the left fielder Prades failing to pick up the ball clean in left-center.
Lynchburg added two more runs in the sixth inning. Trent Moses and Matt Weaver delivered back-to-back RBI-doubles. That tied the game 6-6 and took Ross off the hook for the loss.
Reliever Zach Jadofsky took over for Ross in the seventh. He allowed three runs, two earned, on three hits in the seventh. Trapp highlighted the rally with an RBI-single which was combined with an error to allow another run to score on the same play.
Wilmington added a final run in the bottom of the eighth off Wilson Rivera. The Hillcats trailed 10-6 entering the ninth. They plated two runs courtesy of a bunt single, two infield singles, and and error. They stranded the tying run at first base when all was said and done.
Blue Rocks skipper Vance Wilson didn’t make it through the final frame. Kubitza’s infield single was a close call at first that set Wilson off as it would have been the final out of the game.
The Hillcats have lost the series dropping the first two games in Wilmington this weekend. They will try to avoid a sweep in tomorrow’s finale at 6:05pm. The Hillcats will throw RHP Jarett Miller (8-7, 3.61) against LHP John Lamb (4-12, 6.09) for the Blue Rocks. The Hillcats On-Deck Show powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg will go on the air at 5:40pm. Listen live to Erik Wilson with the call on 97.9 FM The Planet and online at lynchburg-hillcats.com