Lynchburg Hillcats, Potomac Nationals split doubleheader

Bradley Zimmer hit his first home run of the season, and James Roberts added an RBI double to give the Lynchburg Hillcats a 2-1 victory over the Potomac Nationals in the second game of a doubleheader at Pfitzner Stadium Saturday.

Zimmer put the Hillcats in front in the first with a two-out solo shot over the right field fence, marking his seventh career home run in 51 games. In the second inning, Alex Monsalve reached on an error. Three batters later, James Roberts doubled down the left-field line to score Monsalve and push the Hillcats advantage to 2-0. The Nationals plated an unearned run in the sixth after Wilmer Difo reached on an error and scored on a base hit by Drew Ward.

Ben Heller earned his second save in as many chances by tossing a perfect seventh inning. Benny Suarez earned the victory after two innings of relief in which he only surrendered one unearned run on two hits. D.J. Brown started the game and shut out the Nationals on only two hits in four frames.

In the earlier contest, Adam Plutko retired the first 11 batters of the game, but with two outs in the fourth, Jayson Werth hit a homer over the left field fence to provide the only run of the game. Plutko took the hard-luck loss after going six innings with only one run allowed on three hits. Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier had the only hits for the Hillcats as Brian Rauh (1-0) went five innings and Dakota Bacus tossed the final two frames for the save.

Lynchburg completes its opening series of the 2015 season Sunday at 1:05 p.m. Mitch Brown, the No. 12 prospect in the Indians system according to MLBpipeline.com, will take the mound for the Hillcats while Wander Suero will start for the Nationals. The Hillcats On-Deck Show on ESPN Radio 93.3 FM and 1320 AM will begin at 12:40 p.m.