Lynchburg Hillcats break losing skid

The Lynchburg Hillcats snapped their four-game losing streak with a interesting 6-3 win over the Carolina Mudcats.

Ryan Weber got his first win in his first start of the season after 14 appearances out of the Hillcats bullpen. Edward Salcedo added his career-high 13th homer of the season. The game included five wild pitches and one passed ball for the Mudcats staff.

Ryan Weber was making his first start of the season with the Hillcats against Jordan Cooper, after not much sucess as a starter in Low-A Rome this season. However, you’d never know it.

The comfort for Weber may have began thanks to teammate Edward Salcedo blasting his career-high 13th home run of the season with Chris Garcia on in the bottom of the second inning.

Lynchburg expanded their cushion in the bottom of the fourth. The first three batters reached base, before David Rohm came through with a sac fly to score Dan Brewer to make it 3-0.

Andrew Wilson after five scoreless innings from Weber that included six strike outs. Wilson’s first frame wasn’t as successful. After a 6-4-3 double play, Jesus Aguilar singled with two outs, then scored on Anthony Gallas’ RBI-triple to cut the lead to 3-1.

The Hillcats would have an eventful bottom of the seventh on base paths . Shawn McGill got on with a rare infield single off Fabio Martinez. McGill proceeded to steal second with no throw when Martinez was napping on the mound. Emerson Landoni hit a rocket shot off the glove off a diving Aguilar at first base that ricocheted past Todd Hankins at second. McGill raced home to give Lynchburg a 4-1 lead. Then, Martinez had a ball fumbled by his catch, Alex Monsalve, before delivering two wild pitches that saw Landoni move around the bases and home without a single hit. After Landoni scored, the lead was a commending 5-1.

Lynchburg’s offense wasn’t done. For good measure, in the bottom of the eighth, Adam Milligan added an RBI-single to push it to 6-1.

Matt Chaffee entered for the top of the 9th to shut down the Carolina offense. First up was Ronny Rodriguez and it seemed like it was going to go to plan, but Salcedo threw the ball away and Rodriguez scurried over to third base. Tyler Cannon came up and hit a bloop fly ball over between second and first base. Garcia and Landoni couldn’t decide who should take it and the ball dropped. Rodriguez scored to make it 6-2. A passed ball allowed Cannon to move to second before Monsalve came through with an RBI-single to cut it to a 6-3 lead. Another single saw runners at first and second, but Chaffee finally stopped the bleeding by getting Giovanny Urshela to fly out.

Weber (1-2) got his first win with the Hillcats this season. He went five strong allowing three hits and striking out six. Cooper (6-6) got the loss for his six innings of work in which he allowed three runs on five hits.