More rain, more extras, and more heartbreak for the Lynchburg Hillcats in their home opener. The Hillcats dropped their fifth straight contest on Thursday night by a score of 5-4 to the Potomac Nationals in 10 innings. The ‘Cats have seen two contests get rained out and made up with doubleheaders, a 30-minute electrical delay, a 16-inning contest, and now a 40-minute rain delay, and they’ve only played eight games.
The Nationals got the scoring started in the first inning when Christopher Bostick one-hopped the centerfield wall for a one-out triple off Adam Plutko in the first. He was driven in on a groundout to first by Isaac Ballou in the next at-bat.
That would be the only damage done to Plutko on the night, as he turned in another quality performance. Plutko went 6.2 innings, allowed two hits and just the one run, while striking out seven. He set down 11 in a row after surrendering the run.
Bradley Zimmer cut down Spencer Kieboom trying to go first to third to end the top of the fourth inning and then homered off Nationals starter Brian Rauh to tie things up leading off the bottom half. The Hillcats took the lead 2-1 in the sixth on a sac fly from James Roberts that scored Nellie Rodriguez.
After Nellie Rodriguez and Eric Haase walked to start things off in the eighth, Luigi Rodriguez plated them both with an opposite field double that bounced off the left field wall giving them a 4-1 advantage.
As the rain began to fall in the top of the ninth and Lynchburg still leading by the same score, Ben Heller came in to close things out. Wilmer Defo greeted him with a leadoff single, followed by a one-out single by Bostick. Spencer Kieboom loaded the bases with a walk. Heller got himself one out away from closing it out when he struck out Khayyan Norfork looking, but the Nationals added to the Hillcats frustrations instead. Drew Ward tied things up with a three-run double that scored Difo, Bostick, and Cody Davis, who had come in to run for Kieboom. Davis slipped rounding third, but was still able to beat the throw to the plate.
Heller was able to strike out Brandon Miller to end the inning, but the rain was too much to play through and the tarp was rolled out on the field.
Following a 40-minute rain delay, the Hillcats when down in order in the ninth, before surrendering the games go ahead run in the 10th on an RBI single from Bostick.
Nellie Rodriguez walked to lead off the bottom of the 10th, but he remained there as David Napoli struck out the next three.
Lynchburg and Potomac are back at it on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Mitch Brown will take the bump for the Hillcats and will take on Blake Schwartz from the Nationals. It’s Schedule Magnet Giveaway presented by Nadine Blakely and WYYD. Gates open 5:30 p.m. Fans can tune in to the game beginning with the Hillcats On-Deck Show at 6:10 on ESPN Radio 93.3 FM/1320 AM.
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Chris Graham
