After Lynchburg clinched the first-half division title Sunday afternoon, they ran into a huge offensive performance by the Carolina Mudcats Monday at City Stadium. Carolina tallied 15 hits in a 14-6 win. Greg Allen and Taylor Murphy each recorded three hits for the ‘Cats.
Justus Sheffield started on the mound for Lynchburg and held the Mudcats scoreless through the first four frames. Carolina scored six runs in the fifth as they batted around the order. Joey Meneses hit a two RBI double to give the Mudcats a 4-3 lead. Meneses, who was just named Carolina League Player of the Week, went 4-5 with five RBIs and three runs scored in the contest. He hit a leadoff homer as part of a two-run seventh inning. In his career, Meneses has a .391 average against the Hillcats with 13 doubles, a triple, three home runs and 20 RBIs in 22 games. He is a lifetime .256 hitter against the rest of the league.
The Mudcats put together another six run inning in the eighth frame. Carolina started the inning off with five hits, which included four singles. The Lynchburg defense tied a season-high with four errors. Luke Eubank and Jordan Milbrath each threw a scoreless 1 2/3 innings for the ‘Cats.
Lynchburg scored in six separate innings, including five of the first six, but it was not nearly enough. Allen scored the first run of the game after Sicnarf Loopstok was caught in a rundown after attempting to steal second. Allen lead off the third with a single and proceeded to score after a Murphy double. Murphy and Anthony Santander lead off the fifth inning with back-to-back doubles to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Mudcats. Mark Mathias added his second home run of the season off the right field foul pole in the sixth inning.
To go along with Allen and Murphy’s three-hit games, Yu-Cheng Chang, Daniel Salters, and Mark Mathias recorded two hits.
Lynchburg is now 21-2 when they record 10 or more hits in a game this year…Since he returned to Lynchburg, Taylor Murphy is 8-16 with two doubles, five singles, and three RBIs…Despite being 40-23 the Hillcats are only 10-9 in series openers.
Lynchburg will play a doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m. against the Carolina Mudcats. Mitch Brown (2-4, 4.39) will start game one for the Hillcats and face-off against Ryan Clark (0-7,5.85) for the Mudcats. Sean Brady (4-3, 5.16) will be on the mound against a pitcher to be named later for Carolina. Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com, beginning with the first pitch at 5:30 p.m.
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