The Lynchburg Hillcats (64-60-Overall, 33-27-Home, 31-23-Second Half) used a four run bottom of the third and picked up the victory 5-2 over the Potomac Nationals (57-66-Overall, 28-35-Road, 24-29-Second Half) at Calvin Falwell Field at Lynchburg City Stadium on Friday night.
Potomac, against RHP Mitch Brown (9-11, 4.76), took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third after Brown faced only seven men in the first frames. Only a LF Alec Keller infield single in the first made Brown face a man over the minimum. The Nationals C Craig Manuel led-off the third with a single and scampered to second base on a RF Narciso Mesa ground out. CF Rafael Bautista singled next and LF Mike Papi for the Hillcats, committed an error, misplaying the ball and allowing Manuel to score with Bautista cruising all the way to third base. Keller knocked in Raffi with an RBI groundout for the 2-0 advantage. Both runs that crossed the plate were unearned.
Potomac from the fourth inning on picked up only two more base hits and six base runners total in the rest of the game and all five hits they had were singles.
RHP Austin Williams (4-4, 2.62) made the start for Potomac and retired the first seven batters he faced into the third inning when the wheels fell off. 2B Claudio Bautista walked, the only walk Williams issued. SS Ivan Castillo slapped the first hit against Williams into right field that pushed Claudio Bautista to second. RF Mike Papi laced a two-run triple into right-centerfield that scored both Claudio Bautista and Castillo and tied the game at 2-2. 3B Yhoxian Medina brought home Papi for a 3-2 lead with an RBI single and came home two batters later when Rafael Bautista committed an error after a 1B Joe Sever single for a 4-2 Hillcats lead.
The score remained 4-2 until the bottom of the fifth when Castillo reached on an infield single followed by a Papi infield bunt single that rolled slowly up the third base line, never turning foul. Medina then lined a ball into right field for a sacrifice fly and a 5-2 Lynchburg lead.
Brown pitched six innings and allowed five hits and two unearned runs, issuing a walk and striking out seven in the win.
Williams pitched a one, two, three bottom of the sixth, which was his final inning of the ballgame. Williams tossed six innings himself and he gave up six hits and five runs (four earned), issuing one walk and striking out six in the loss.
RHP Perci Garner entered in relief and logged two shutout innings with zeros across his line, adding four strikeouts.
LHP Jake Walsh entered for Potomac in the seventh and hurled two perfect innings to close out the loss for the Nationals, striking out two.
RHP Grant Sides (SV 5) came in the ninth and earned the save, his fifth, facing five batters and inducing Mesa, who was representing the tying run at the plate, to line out to Papi in right field to end the ballgame.
The Nationals, with the loss, fall 6.5 games behind the Hillcats in the second half Northern Division title race and are now at .500, 11-11 against Lynchburg.
The Nationals will send LHP Matthew Spann (1-6, 4.92) to the mound against the Hillcats RHP Dace Kime (3-6, 4.57).
You can listen live at www.potomacnationals.com and via the TuneIn Radio App starting at 6:15 pm with “The P-Nats Lead-Off Show” starting off the broadcast and taking you up to first pitch for Game Two.
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Chris Graham
