The Lynchburg Hillcats sent ten men to the plate in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs, en route to an 8-2 victory over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the Hillcats home opener Tuesday night at City Stadium.
The Hillcats (3-1) took the lead in the first inning and never relinquished it, leading from start to finish for the first time this season. The first-inning offense came on a two-run home run from William Beckwith after Matt Lipka led the game off with a walk. It was Beckwith’s second home run of the season and second in as many at bats.
Lynchburg blew the game open in the third with a five-run inning that included two long balls. Elmer Reyes led off the inning with a single and after Beckwith popped out, Robby Hefflinger hit his league-leading fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot.
Later in the inning, Myrtle Beach (2-2) starter Alec Asher looked like he was going to get through the inning but errors on consecutive plays extended the inning and Matt Weaver followed up with a three-run homer, his first, to break it open and chase Asher (0-1) from the game.
Meanwhile, after no starters got through five innings in the weekend series in Potomac, Ryan Weber was solid in his first start of the season for the Hillcats. Weber (1-0) faced the minimum his first time through the order and finished after five strong innings, mixing his pitches well and keeping the hitters off-balance to the tune of two runs on five hits while walking one and striking out four.
The Pelicans finally got to Weber in the fourth. After the long delay for the five-run bottom of the third, Weber surrendered hits to the first three hitters of the inning: back-to-back singles from Luis Sardinas and Rougned Odor and then an RBI-double from Royce Bolinger to get Myrtle Beach on the board. Trever Adams followed up with an RBI-groundout that shattered his bat but Weber settled down after that, retiring five of the last six hitters he faced.
The Hillcats added an insurance run in the home half of the fourth on a Will Skinner two-out single to center that allowed Beckwith to score from second.
The Hillcat bullpen didn’t need any more cushion, continuing their strong 2013 campaign with a combined four scoreless innings allowing just two hits.
The series continues Wednesday at City Stadium with a special 11:05am start time. It’s the first “Smoke Free” “Say No to Drugs” Day of the season, presented by TUCP. Gates will open at 10am. On the mound for the Hillcats will be RHP David Peterson (0-0, 0.00) against RHP Nick Martinez (0-0, -). If you can’t make it to the ballpark, tune in to the live play-by-play broadcast with Erik Wilson and Jake Levy on 97.9 FM The Planet. The Hillcats On-Deck Show powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg will go on the air at 10:40am.
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