Lynchburg rallied from a two-run deficit to complete its third straight comeback win on Friday night against the Carolina Mudcats at Five County Stadium. Yhoxian Medina recorded a season-high three RBIs to power the Hillcats to victory.
TRAILING AGAIN…NO PROBLEM
Carolina jumped ahead of the Hillcats for the second straight night in the bottom of the second inning when Carlos Francowalked and came around to score on a RBI single by Joseph Odom to make it 1-0. Jacob Schrader smacked his 14th home run of the year with a line drive over the left field wall in the fourth to give the Mudcats a 2-0 lead.
MEDINA ERASES THE DEFICIT
In the top of the fifth, the Hillcats started off with back-to-back singles by Bobby Ison and Claudio Bautista before Yhoxian Medina drove in both runners with a single to shallow right that tied the game at two.
TAKING THE LEAD WITH EMPHASIS
After tying the game in the bottom of the fifth, Joe Sever gave the Hillcats a 3-2 lead with a solo home run over the left field wall.
PEOPLES SHINES AGAIN
Hillcats pitcher Michael Peoples turned in seven innings for his second straight start. It marks the first time he has gone at least seven frames in back-to-back starts in his career. Peoples allowed two runs on four hits while walking one and striking out five in the victory. Out of the 21 outs Peoples recorded, 12 were groundouts and five were strikeouts. In the second half 72 percent ofPeoples’ outs have either been strikeouts of groundouts. Peoples has not lost an outing since the All -Star break and is 6-0 in 12 outings during that stretch.
MORE MULTI-RUN INNINGS
Lyncburg plated three more runs in the top of the seventh. Claudio Bautista walked to lead off the frame before Ivan Castilloand LeVon Washington followed with singles to load the bases. Yhoxian Medina grounded out to short to drive in Bautista to make it 4-2 Hillcats. Dorssys Paulino followed with a two-RBI single that scored Castillo and Washington to extend the lead to 6-2.
Lynchburg added two more insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Paul Hendrix hit a RBI single to right that scored Medina who doubled earlier in the frame to give the Hillcats a 7-2 lead. Bobby Ison rounded out the scoring with a single up the middle that scored Joe Sever to put the Hillcats ahead for good, 8-2.
KEEPING UP WITH THE CATS
Michael Peoples pitched seven innings to earn his 11th victory of the season…Over his last seven appearances, Peoples has allowed just five earned runs over 44 innings pitched for a 1.02 ERA…Yhoxian Medina drove in three RBIs on Fridaynight…Medina is now 20-for-57 (.345) with 24 RBIs with runners in scoring position…With a three-run seventh, the Hillcats have scored three runs in an 42 times this season…On the year, when the Hillcats score a run, 23 percent of the time, they score at least three runs in the frame…With the victory and a Frederick loss to Winston-Salem, the Hillcats magic number drops to three with nine games to play.
UP NEXT
Lynchburg looks to make it three in a row against the Carolina Mudcats on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Fans can tune in to the action on ESPN Virginia 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com beginning at 5:40 p.m. for the Hillcats On-Deck Show.
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