Greg Allen and Mark Mathias each hit two doubles to lead the Hillcats offensive attack to a 9-6 victory at Pfitzner Stadium Monday night. Anthony Santander, Dorssys Paulino, Taylor Murphy, and Yu-Cheng Chang added two-baggers as well to give Lynchburg its fifth consecutive road win.
Lynchburg used three doubles in the first inning to score three runs and lead for the duration of the contest. Allen began the game by reaching after he was hit by a pitch. Two batters later, Santander smashed a double over the head of center fielderAndrew Stevenson to score Allen. With two outs in the frame, Paulino and Murphy hit back-to-back RBI doubles to push the margin to 3-0 before Potomac even stepped to the plate. Murphy’s double extended his team-best hitting streak to six games.
In the second frame, Sicnarf Loopstok led off with an infield single, and he eventually came home on a Greg Allen double.Allen proceeded to steal third base and score on a sacrifice fly by Chang.
Greg Allen walked with one out in the fourth inning and advanced from first to third on a bloop single to center field. That set up an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Santander. Potomac answered with a three-run triple by Stevenson in the bottom of the fourth to cut it to 6-3, but the Hillcats quickly responded in the fifth inning when Mathias hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch.
In the seventh inning, Mathias notched his second double of the game to open the stanza. Allen reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second base. That allowed Chang to drive home both Hillcats and make it 9-4 at the time. Potomac plated two in the home half of that frame, but Lynchburg held on for a 9-6 final score.
Combined, the pitching staffs of Potomac and Lynchburg had 16 walks, three hit batters, three wild pitches, and a balk on Monday. Jordan Milbrath (1-1) earned the victory with a scoreless eighth inning, and Trevor Frank recorded his third save of the year. Mitch Brown left the game with a 6-3 lead, but he could not qualify for the victory after only going four innings. Phillips Valdez (2-1) suffered the loss after allowing seven runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Greg Allen leads the Carolina League in both walks and stolen bases with 13 in each category…Mike Papi earned Carolina League Player of the Week by hitting .314 in the first 10 days with a league-best four home runs and .800 slugging percentage…Lynchburg set season highs with eight extra-base hits and nine runs.
Lynchburg returns to Pfitzner Stadium for a Tuesday night contest at 7:05 p.m. Luis Lugo will start for the Hillcats. Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com, beginning with the Hillcats On-Deck Show at6:45 p.m.
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