Lynchburg Hillcats win series opener with Winston-Salem

Will Skinner provided a home run and four RBI while Navery Moore matched a career-long seven innings on the hill to guide the Lynchburg Hillcats to a 6-4 win over the Winston-Salem Dash Thursday night at historic City Stadium.  The Hillcats again survived a late threat from the Dash to three of four games.

Moore (2-3) went seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out three.  Both Moore’s wins have come against the Dash (14-13) this season.

Skinner got the scoring started for the Hillcats (14-11) in the bottom of the second inning with a two-run home run, his third of the season.  Skinner had been hitless since April 17, 0-for-19 with ten strikeouts in that span, but uncorked one over the left field wall in his first at bat of the series making it 2-0 Hillcats after two.

Lynchburg batted around in the third, scoring four runs in the inning.  Winston starter Bryan Blough walked three of the first four hitters in the inning to load the bases with one out.  Blough then hit Matt Lipka to force in a run and, with the bases still loaded, Skinner lined one into left to plate a pair.  The next hitter Elmer Reyes rounded out the scoring with an RBI-double to make it 6-0 Hillcats.

That was plenty for Moore, whose only blemish was a two-run home run off the bat of Jeremy Farrell in the fifth inning.  It was the fourth home run of the season for Farrell and the fifth long ball allowed by Moore on the year, making it 6-2.

That score held all the way until the ninth inning.  Ryan Woolley, who returned from Double-A Mississippi today, came on for Moore in the eighth and retired the first four hitters he faced out of the pen.

Woolley allowed a double and a walk then Reyes dropped a pop fly a step onto the outfield grass, allowing everyone to reach safely.  Farrell chopped one through to left field to plate two, making it 6-4, to chase Woolley from the game.

Wilson Rivera came in and picked up a strikeout and a pop up to shallow left field to end the game and earn his first save of the season.

The Hillcats host the Wilmington Blue Rocks over the weekend.  The three-game set kicks off Friday night at 6:05pm. Gates open at 5pm and the first 1,000 fans will get a free 2012 Carolina League Championship poster.  James Hoyt (2-0, 2.33) makes his first start of the year against Kyle Zimmer (0-2, 4.76) for Wilmington.  If you can’t make it to the game, 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, on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com