Luis Lugo tied a career high with 10 strikeouts and only allowed three baserunners over a career-high seven innings to set the table for Lynchburg’s league-leading ninth shutout of the year, an 11-0 victory at Frawley Stadium Monday night.
Taylor Murphy, Paul Hendrix and Bobby Bradley all hit home runs to give Lynchburg nine homers in three games at Wilmington this weekend.
After the Soup Nazi attended a game earlier this series for “Seinfeld Night” at Frawley Stadium, Hillcats pitchers were incredibly stingy at the ballpark Monday. Luis Lugo (6-3) went the first seven innings and only allowed three baserunners on three hits. He matched his career high 10 strikeouts, which he also achieved while with Lake County against Dayton June 9, 2014. It marked the third time Lugo tossed seven innings in his career, all with the Hillcats. The left-hander has won four of his last six starts.
Jordan Milbrath surrendered a leadoff single in the eighth but quickly erased that with a double-play ball to face the minimum in his one inning of relief. Billy Strode struck out one in a perfect ninth inning to seal the shutout. The ‘Cats have blanked an opponent a league-best nine times. Conversely, the Hillcats are the only team in the league that has not been shut out on offense, while every other team in the Carolina League has been held off the scoreboard at least four times this year.
After setting a team record with five home runs in the series opener, Lynchburg belted three more Monday, giving the team a total of nine for the series. Taylor Murphy hit a three-run homer well beyond the right-field fence in the second inning to open the scoring. It drove in Yu-Cheng Chang and Luigi Rodriguez. Lynchburg added another pair of runs in the fifth with a sacrifice fly by Anthony Santander and an RBI double by Bobby Bradley. Greg Allen and Mark Mathias scored the runs after Allen led off the inning with a two-bagger.
Leading 5-0 in the sixth, Murphy singled with one out, and Paul Hendrix hit a home run to center field to push it to 7-0. It wasHendrix’s fourth of the season and his second of the road trip. Bradley began the seventh inning with a solo homer to right, andSicnarf Loopstok tripled off the center field wall two batters later. With two outs in the frame, Murphy singled home Loopstokto tie a career high with four RBIs and give Lynchburg a 9-0 edge.
Bradley picked up another RBI in the eighth on a base hit that plated Allen, while Rodriguez’s two-out single knocked inMathias to make the final count 11-0.
Five different Hillcats had multi-hit games, including Bradley’s 4-5 performance that tied a career high in hits…Bradley andSantander are tied for the league lead in RBIs with 69 apiece…Lynchburg has a league-high 87 home runs, 58 of which have come on the road…Lynchburg has at least 12 hits in nine of its last 12 games and has a total of 51 hits so far in the three-game series at Wilmington…The Hillcats are batting a league-best .272 for the season.
Lynchburg concludes its road trip Tuesday at 11:05 a.m. Justus Sheffield (6-4, 3.81) will start for the ‘Cats. 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 11 a.m.
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