The Lynchburg Hillcats suffered an 8–3 loss to the Carolina Mudcats tonight as they were unable to close out innings. Lynchburg threw 176 pitches in eight innings of work, walking seven and hitting one batter as a staff in the series opening loss. Carolina pulled away with a five-run two-out rally in the fourth.
Yandy Diaz drove in the first run of the ball game with a one out ground out to shortstop. The Hillcats (7-5, 41-41) answered in the third with a solo home run. Joe Odom went deep off the scoreboard in left field, his fifth home run of the season, which is tied for the team lead with Will Skinner.
The Mudcats (7-6, 36-44) regained the the lead for good in the bottom of the third. Lucas Sims surrendered three consecutive singles with two outs concluding with an RBI knock from Alex Monsalve.
Sims (6-6) then retired the first two batters again in the fourth inning before six straight Mudcats reached. He walked two mixed in with three singles allowing two runs to score. Then, Monsalve drove in three with a double to put the Mudcats up 7-1. Sims followed his no-hit outing last Thursday with the worst start of his career. He allowed career-highs in hits (9), earned runs (7), matched his high in walks (4), and suffered the loss.
Carolina’s final run scored in the sixth courtesy of a two-out error. That was the only run Navery Moore allowed in three innings of no-hit relief tonight.
Lynchburg didn’t go away quietly scoring two runs in the ninth. Eric Garcia drove in a run with a single, and David Nick knocked in another with a groundout to first. Jose Martinez went 1-for-3 and extended his hitting streak to 10 games and Kevin Ahrens went 1-for-3 extending his streak to seven.
The Hillcats take on the Mudcats in game two tomorrow at 7pm. RIght-hander Cody Scarpetta (2-1, 1.89) will start for the Hillcats against lefty Ryan Merritt (8-2, 1.58) for Carolina. The Hillcats On-Deck Show presented by Amtrak Virginia will go on the air at 6:40pm. Erik Wilson will have the call on 97.9 The Planet.
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Chris Graham
