The Lynchburg Hillcats beat the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 3-1, Sunday night at Calvin Falwell Field. Williams Perez matched a career-high eight strikeouts en route to his second win in as many starts since his call up to Lynchburg. Shawn McGill drove in two runs and scored once as well in the win.
Perez made his first start at home for the Hillcats (9-17. 45-50) on Sunday. He allowed one run on four hits while striking out eight and walking two. The lone blemish against Perez (2-0) was a solo home run by Rougned Odor in the fourth inning. In his two games, Perez has allowed one run on seven hits with 15 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Lynchburg got on the board in the second inning when Elmer Reyes delivered a two-out single to left field, plating McGill. Myrtle Beach (18-10, 58-39) tied the game with the Odor homer in the fourth. Odor has now hit safely in 15 straight games.
After Perez’s six-inning gem, the Hillcats were able to plate a run in the bottom of the sixth to put him in line for the win. David Rohm reached on a fielding error by SS Luis Sardinas with one out in the inning. Hillcats manager Luis Salazar put on a hit-and-run for the next hitter McGill, who placed a fly ball just inside the right field line for a double that plated Rohm all the way from first, which wound up being the winning run.
After five innings of one-run ball from Myrtle Beach starter Jerad Eickhoff, Taylor Dennis took over in the sixth and gave up the unearned run that proved the decider. Dennis (1-1) allowed two runs, one earned, suffering his first loss of the season.
The ‘Cats got their insurance run in the eighth. Trent Moses led off the inning with a single and a sacrifice bunt and groundout moved him to third with two down. After a pitching change, McGill served a soft liner into left to plate the Moses and make it 3-1 Hillcats.
Carlos Perez came on in relief of Williams and delivered three perfect innings, which included three strikeouts, for his first save as a Hillcat. It was the longest outing of Perez’s season between Class-A Rome and Lynchburg.
The Hillcats look to earn their first series victory of the second half in Monday’s game two. Gates open at 6pm for a7:05pm first pitch and you can get select menu items for just $1, presented by ABC 13. Ryan Hinson (0-1, 1.50) makes his home debut for the Hillcats against Luke Jackson (8-4, 2.55) for Myrtle Beach. If you can’t make it to the game join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for the broadcast starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, at 6:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com
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Chris Graham
