Lynchburg shut out the Frederick Keys for the second time in three nights to earn its 10th consecutive victory in a 3-0 contest.
Mitch Brown earned his first win of the year in his best outing thus far. He pitched five frames of scoreless baseball while tying a career high with nine strikeouts and only walking one. Anderson Polanco went four innings to earn his first save of the season.Mark Mathias recorded two hits, including an RBI double in the sixth inning. The win improved the ‘Cats record to a Minor League-best 14-3.
Mitch Brown (1-1) made his longest outing of the season while matching his career high of nine strikeouts, which was accomplished July 24 of last season against Myrtle Beach. He struck out half of the batters he faced due to a 62 percent strikeout rate and allowed only three hits. Brown lowered his earned run average from 7.43 to 5.40.
Anderson Polanco appeared in his fourth game of the season. He struck out six batters without walking any. The left-hander improved his ERA to 2.45 on the year.
Combined, the pair set a season-high for Hillcats strikeouts with 15. Previously, Hillcats pitchers had struck out 13 in a game on two different occasions. The shutout marked the third for Lynchburg in its last four days and its fifth overall.
The Hillcats got on the board in the bottom of the third off of the effort by Greg Allen. The speedster ripped a line drive into center field and then proceeded to steal second and third. On his steal of third, the Keys catcher threw the ball away allowing Allen to come home. Allen increased his steal total to 16, which is the most in all of Minor League Baseball. The ‘Cats added another run in the fifth frame as Mark Mathias lead off the inning with a single and later scored on a Yu-Cheng Chang single. Lynchburg’s final run came in the sixth inning as Taylor Murphy came around to score on Mathias’ double to right center field.
Taylor Murphy’s single that hit off of the Keys pitcher in the sixth inning increased his consecutive game hitting streak to nine…Mike Papi reached base twice in the contest to improve his on-base streak to 15, which ranks second in the Carolina League…Lynchburg’s fifth shutout last year came on July 4 against Salem.
Lynchburg returns to action against the Frederick Keys for a Sunday afternoon game at 2 p.m. Left-handed pitcher Luis Lugowill be on the bump for the Hillcats. The ‘Cats will be going for their third straight series sweep and look to improve their winning streak to 11 games. 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 1:45 p.m.
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Chris Graham
