Ryan Weber delivered a career-outing tonight, completing eight innings for the first time as a pro in the Lynchburg Hillcats 10-0 win over the Carolina Mudcats. He retired the last 15 batters he faced, leading the way for Lynchburg to snap their worst losing streak of the season at four games. The Hillcats improved to 5-0 at Five County Stadium and 7-1 overall against the Mudcats this season.
Matt Lipka put the Hillcats (3-7, 39-40) on the board first with a solo homer in the third inning. It was his fifth of the season and extended his season-best hitting streak to eight games. Lipka finished the night 1-for-2, after getting ejected in the fifth inning for arguing a call at second base.
Trent Moses added an RBI-double later in the third inning to put the Hillcats up 2-0. He then added another RBI-double in the fifth. The Hillcats took a 3-0 lead, which held until eighth frame.
The Mudcats (3-8, 25-56) collected two hits in the first inning and another in the third before Weber sat down the side in order from the fourth through the eighth frame. Weber only allowed hits to first rounders Tyler Naquin and Francisco Lindor. He didn’t walk a single batter and struck out seven, which matched a season-high.
Shawn Morimando gave the Mudcats 4.1 innings in his start tonight. He allowed just two earned run on four hits, but he also walked four and struck out five.
Three hits, three walks, and two errors allowed 10 batters to come to the plate in the eighth inning for Lynchburg and five runs came around to score off the bullpen combination of Francisco Valera and Fabio Martinez.
Lynchburg added two more in the ninth to reach their ultimate lead of 10-0.
David Rohm singled in his final at-bat of the night extending his current hitting streak to 10 games. He is the only player in the circuit with multiple double digit hitting streaks this season.
Weber (5-3) earned the win for the Hillcats, while Morimando (4-9) took the loss for Carolina.
Game two of the series is set for tomorrow night at 7:15pm. The Hillcats will throw RHP Jarett Miller (5-5,4.08) against RHP Michael Peoples (0-4, 5.87) for the Mudcats. The Hillcats On-Deck Show powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg will go on the air at 6:50pm. Listen live to Erik Wilson with the call on 97.9 FM The Planet and online at lynchburg-hillcats.com