Lynchburg wins in extras

The second of the three games between the ‘Cats and Dash went to extras tonight in Lynchburg. This time the Hillcats came out victorious thanks to David Rohm’s double in the bottom of the 13th to score Bobby Stevens and give the ‘Cats a 3-2 win. The game was the longest of the season for Lynchburg both time and innings-wise.

It was quite the pitchers’ duel early tonight in Lynchburg. Both Chris Masters of the ‘Cats and Justin Collop of the Dash were locked in from the beginning.

The Dash threatened first in the top of the third when Ross Wilson led the inning off with a double, however, Masters retired the next three batters and Wilson went stranded.

Lynchburg threatened in the bottom of the fourth with a lead-off double of their own. It was Adam Milligan that got the inning started with the extra-base hit. Bobby Stevens followed by laying down a bunt down the third base line, the third baseman, Juan Silverio, bobbled it and couldn’t get the speedy Stevens. Runners were on the corners with no outs and Braeden Schlehuber at the plate. The corners drew in and Schlehuber hit a sharp ground ball to Silverio, Milligan broke for home, and Silverio fired a strike to the catcher, Miguel Gonzalez. Milligan was out on a nice swipe tag and that would be the last ‘Cats would threaten in the inning.

Masters continued to perform well and left after six for the third straight game. It would be the top of the seventh that would prove troublesome for Lynchburg. Caleb Brewer entered and gave up a homer to Cyle Hankerd to start his appearance. The solo shot made it 1-0.

An inning later, Brewer would get into trouble with one away. Gonzalez hit a dart to left field that went off the top of the wall for a double. Marcus Semien followed with a double off same left field wall, but because it hung in the air, Gonzalez was hesitant to go and stopped at third. Blaine Sims entered and got Carlos Sanchez to fly out to center field, but the deep fly ball scored Gonzalez to make it 2-0.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Lynchburg bats finally woke-up. With Collop out of the game and Chris Bassitt in, the ‘Cats put two on the board after Chris Garcia walked and Milligan hit his seventh home run of the season to tie it at 2-2.

It was a quiet couple innings before the bottom of the 10th got tricky for the Dash. It started with what looked like it was going to be an easy double for Nick Ahmed, but his blast out to left got over Wilson’s head in left and Ahmed tried to stretch it into a triple. A relay from Wilson to Semien to Silverio got Ahmed by a step for the second out. After Bassitt walked Garcia, Terance Marin came in and subsequently got Milligan to ground out to end the threat.

No real threats until the bottom of the 12th. After two straight Ks for Marin, Mycal Jones and Ahmed each singled. Shawn McGill, who entered as a pinch-runner for Garcia, hit a flair out to left, Wilson charged in and Semien raced out. Semien made the catch, Wilson’s slide took out Semien’s legs and he tumbled to the ground, but was able to hold on.

The marathon game continued to the 13th, but no further. The ‘Cats got a one out double from Stevens on an amazing hook slide on a ball that beat him to the second base bag. Two batters later, David Rohm would extend his hit streak to six games with a double off the top of the left field wall to score Stevens. The longest game, time and innings-wise, of the season for Lynchburg was over with a 3-2 final score in favor of the home team.

Matt Chaffee (3-0) got the win for his one-third inning of work. Terance Marin (3-2) got the loss for his three innings of work. He allowed five hits, which led to one run. Marin also struck out three.