Lynchburg Hillcats take the lead for good in seventh, defeat Salem Red Sox, 6-3

The Lynchburg Hillcats used the late innings to take down the Salem Red Sox by a score of 6-3 on Thursday evening.

Lynchburg (9-9) and Salem (9-9) traded blows up until the seventh inning, when the Hillcats took the lead for good.

The Hillcats opened up the scoring in the first inning on a double to right field by Milan Tolentino. Salem would respond in the top of the second with a Nathan Hickey homerun to tie the game.

The Red Sox would score two more runs in the top of the sixth off of doubles by Hickey and Niko Kavadas. Lynchburg would trim into the lead in the bottom half of the frame on the first of two doubles for Jorge Burgos.

Then in the seventh, the Hillcats would tie the game on a groundout from Luis Durango that scored Yordys Valdes. One batter later, Isaiah Greene would hit his first homerun of the season to give the Hillcats the lead for good.

The Hillcats were not done as they would pick up two more runs. The first of which was another double off the bat of Jorge Burgos. The second run of the inning came on a ground ball single into right by Will Bartlett, scoring Burgos.

On the mound, the Hillcats combined for seventeen strikeouts between three pitchers. Will Dion would record seven in nearly five innings, Juan Zapata would tack on eight of his own, followed by two strikeouts by Elvis Jerez in the ninth.

The Hillcats improve to .500 for the first time this season and will look to capture a winning record as they take on the Red Sox on Friday evening at 6:30.