The Lynchburg Hillcats used five home runs to drop the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 8-1, Tuesday night at City Stadium. All eight of the Hillcats runs came on long balls, including two home runs from both Robby Hefflinger and Kyle Kubitza and a three-run homer from Matt Weaver. Greg Ross went a season-high seven innings and gave up one run to get the win.
The Hillcats (27-22) got the lead in the second inning on a two-out three-run homer over the left field wall by Weaver. Shawn McGill singled and Kubitza walked to lead off the inning, then after back-to-back infield flies Weaver delivered. Hefflinger followed up with his first home run of the night in the third, a solo shot to make it 4-0 Hillcats.
Greg Ross meanwhile was cruising through the Pelicans (29-21) lineup. The lone run against him came on an RBI-double from Royce Bolinger. Ross (2-1) gave up one run on five hits while walking two and striking out four. Through two starts against Myrtle Beach this season, Ross has allowed one run in 12 innings.
Three of the Hillcats home runs came off Pelicans starter Victor Payano (4-3), who gave up five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out four.
Kubitza hit solo home runs in the sixth and eighth, sandwiching Hefflinger’s two-run home run in the seventh to tack on the extra insurance runs. The Hillcats set a new season high for home runs as a team.
Caleb Brewer and Matt Chaffee each pitched a scoreless inning in relief to close out the game. The Hillcats have taken each of the first two games of the four-game set and have guaranteed at least a split of the series.
The Hillcats look to win the series in game three Wednesday night at City Stadium. It’s a Win-Win Wednesday, presented by WLNI, where fans will get a free ticket to the next Wednesday home game at City Stadium as they enter the ballpark. Gates open at 5pm for a 6:05pm first pitch. Navery Moore (5-4, 5.43) takes the bump for Lynchburg against Jerad Eickoff (4-2, 4.03) for Myrtle Beach. If you can’t make it to the ballpark, join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for all the play-by-play action starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, going live at 5:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com.
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Chris Graham
