Lynchburg earns series split with 5-3 win

Justus Sheffield, originally scheduled to start Sunday’s finale against the Dash, learned he had been traded that morning to the New York Yankees system, which left Lynchburg looking to its bullpen to step up in his absence. They did just that, as Matt Whitehouse, Justin Garcia and Jordan Milbrath held Winston-Salem to three runs on a mere four hits to lead the Hillcats to a 5-3 win at BB&T Ballpark.

With Justus Sheffield involved in a trade that helped bring Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians, Matt Whitehouse became the starter and went four innings on a season-high 66 pitches to set the tone for the evening. Whitehouse held Winston-Salem to a pair of runs on four hits. The left-hander struck out three and walked two.

Justin Garcia (2-0) earned the win with three scoreless innings, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. Garcia fanned two, and his only baserunner came on a walk. Jordan Milbrath improved to 4-4 in save opportunities by limiting the Dash to a run over the final two frames.

After the two teams traded runs in the second inning, Lynchburg broke the 1-1 tie with a four-run fourth inning. Taylor Murphy opened the stanza with a double to right field, and Paul Hendrix was hit by a pitch to put the first two runners aboard. Connor Marabell singled to load the bases.

The Hillcats plated two runs on a sequence that began with a wild pitch to bring home Murphy and concluded with a heads-up baserunning play by Paul Hendrix to score on an errant throw by the catcher Daniel Gonzalez. Alex Monsalve drove in Marabell, and Mark Mathias picked up an RBI on a base hit that knocked in Monsalve. With the score 5-1 at that point, the Hillcats held on the remainder of the contest. Michael Suiter hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, and Telvin Nash scored the final Dash run in the ninth on a wild pitch.

Lynchburg has not lost a four-game series all season…The Hillcats returned to 30 games above .500 with a 68-38 mark for the year…The Hillcats are a league-best 34-18 on the road…Three former Hillcats were also involved in the Andrew Miller trade…They were Clint Frazier, Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.

Lynchburg returns home to play four games in three days against the Potomac Nationals, beginning with a Monday contest at6:30 p.m. Sean Brady (10-4, 4.08) has won eight of his last 10 starts and will be on the mound 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 6:15 p.m.