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Mejia hitting streak reaches 50 in 10-inning Lynchburg loss

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lynchburg hillcatsNick Basto hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning to push the Dash past the Lynchburg Hillcats, 7-5 in 10 innings at City Stadium Saturday night. Francisco Mejia went 1-4 and extended his hitting streak to 50 games, the fourth-longest in Minor League Baseball history and the longest in the modern era.

Entering the contest with a 49-game hitting streak, Francisco Mejia stepped to the plate in the third inning for his second at-bat of the game. The switch-hitter batting right-handed hit a groundball past Gerson Montilla into left field. Originally called an error on Montilla during the game, the call was changed to a double following the contest.

Regarding the official scorer’s change, the Hillcats issued the following statement: “After reviewing additional data and watching video of the play, the official scorer decided to rule Mejia’s batted ball in the third inning a double. The video review showed that the ball was struck far enough away from the backhand of the third baseman (Montilla) and hit with enough force and topspin to prevent Montilla from making the play with ordinary effort.  Based on this, the official scorer changed the error to a hit.”

Mejia’s streak now stands at 50 games, which ties Otto Pahlman of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League in 1922 for the fourth-longest in Minor League history. Mejia has extended his streak with an extra-base hit 16 times, including eight occasions with a double. Mejia has a total of 25 extra-base hits during the streak, which began on May 27 in Lake County. By hitting safely in 26 games as Hillcat, Mejia also moved within five games of the all-time Carolina League hitting streak, which was set by Orge Pat Cooper in 1948 when he hit safely in 31 consecutive for Martinsville.

Lynchburg tallied 11 hits and five runs but went 3-19 with runners in scoring position. Each team scored two runs in the first inning. Landon Lassiter tripled, and Gerson Montilla doubled to start the game for the Dash. Montilla scored on a base hit byMason Robbins.

The Hillcats answered in the home half with a two-out, two-run single by Dorssys Paulino to even the score, 2-2. Lynchburg claimed the lead in the fifth inning after Connor Marabell walked and eventually scored on a double by Tyler Krieger.The Dash took over the lead in the seventh frame. Telvin Nash doubled, and Brett Austin proceeded to triple to drive in the first run of the stanza. Cleuluis Rondon singled to make the count, 4-3.

After Winston-Salem tacked on another run in the eighth, Bobby Bradley crushed a solo shot over the videoboard to answer in the bottom half and make the score 5-4. Bradley leads the Carolina League in home runs and RBIs with 24 and 87.

Mark Mathias singled in the ninth and later advanced on a wild pitch to Francisco Mejia. Bradley singled on a shallow fly ball to tie the game and send it to extras. Nick Basto hit a two-run round-tripper over the scoreboard to give the Dash a 7-5 lead, which would be the final score.

Thomas Pannone and Jared Robinson combined to go the distance for the ‘Cats. Pannone tossed four innings and struck out five batters while scattering three hits. It marked his first appearance since going on the Disabled List July 27. Two runs came into score with the lefty on the mound. Robinson allowed six hits and five runs in his six innings out of the bullpen. Jacob Morris(2-3) earned the win for the Dash after blowing the save in the ninth and closing out the game in the 10th.

Lynchburg fell to 6-5 in extra-inning games…The ‘Cats have a league-leading 109 home runs on the year and are 46-24 when a Hillcat hits a homer…Lynchburg is 51-14 when outhitting opponents, the Hillcats have lost their last two games when doing so.

Lynchburg wraps up its series with Winston-Salem Sunday at City Stadium at 4 p.m. Matt Esparza (0-2, 2.45) will be on the bump for the Hillcats. The Dash will send Zach Thompson (2-3, 6.97) to the mound. Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com, beginning with the Hillcats On-Deck Show at 3:45 p.m.

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