Winston-Salem rips Lynchburg, 9-2

The Lynchburg Hillcats were roughed up, 9-2, by the Winston-Salem Dash in Sunday’s series finale at City Stadium.  Elmer Reyes drove in both runs for the Hillcats with an RBI-single and RBI-groundout.  Blaine Sims took his third-straight loss since joining the Hillcats rotation.

The Hillcats (1-2, 37-35) again fell behind early, giving up a run in the second before a four-run third inning broke things open.  Rangel Ravelo drove in the second-inning run with a double.  A wild pitch, passed ball, an RBI-triple by Chris Curley and Ravelo’s second RBI in as many innings provided the four-run third to make it 5-0 after three innings.

Grant Buckner doubled for the Dash (2-1, 39-32) to make it 7-0 in the top of the fourth, rounding out the scoring off the Hillcats starter.  Sims (0-3) went five innings and surrendered seven runs, six earned, on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven batters.

The Hillcats got on the board in the bottom of the fourth.  Kyle Kubitza bounced a single through the right side, then reached third when the Dash’s middle infield misplayed a soft chopper off the bat of Shawn McGill to put runners at the corners for Reyes, who drove in his first run with a bloop single to shallow right field that landed just in front of a diving Josh Richmond.

The Dash tacked on runs in the eighth and ninth inning and Reyes provided an RBI-groundout to score McGill in the ninth to finish off the scoring.  The loss means the first series loss for the Hillcats against the Dash this season.

The Hillcats’ home stand continues Monday as they welcome the Wilmington Blue Rocks for a four-game series at City Stadium.  Monday means $1 food items, presented by ABC13, and first pitch is set for 7:05pm with gates opening at 6pm.  The Hillcats send Navery Moore (7-5, 5.06) to the mound against Tyler Sample (0-3, 2.95) for Wilmington.  If you can’t make it to the game, join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for all the play-by-play action starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, going live at 6:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com