Lynchburg Hillcats End Offensive Drought in Seveth with 4-1 Win Over the Wilmington Blue Rocks
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 09:15AM MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Wilmington, DE – A classic pitcher's duel came to a crashing halt in the top of the seventh, as the Lynchburg Hillcats plated four runs en route to a 4-1 victory over the Wilmington Blue Rocks at Frawley Stadium on Tuesday night. Jamie Romak and Eddie Prasch homered off Ed Cegarra to disrupt a scoreless tie and send the visitors to a series victory and a two-game lead over Wilmington (4-8) in the Carolina League's Northern Division second-half standings.
Cegarra (2-4) allowed a single to James Barksdale to begin the game and then proceeded to retire 16 of the next 17, including 11 straight before Barksdale singled again with one out in the sixth. But, with a postgame fireworks show awaiting the 5,332 in attendance, the Hillcats could not wait that long to provide the Riverfront patrons with a dose of bombast.
After Jim Negrych poked a questionable double down the left-field line that appeared to glance off the mitt of Brett Bigler, Romak powered a deep drive over the right-center field wall for his 14th home run and a 2-0 Lynchburg lead. Two batters later, Prasch took Cegarra deep to nearly the same spot, further stunning the Blue Rocks and their fans. Jared Keel singled and then was caught stealing by Jeff Howell, but Kris Watts poked a single to right thereafter, effectively ending Cegarra's night.
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Lefty Ben Swaggerty came on and let up an infield single by Jose De Los Santos and then walked Barksdale to load the bases. Angel Gonzalez, the ninth man to bat in the inning, sent a grounder to third that Kurt Mertins made a brilliant diving stop on, but there was no play to be made and another run scored. Swaggerty fanned pinch hitter Alex Presley to end the arduous inning that featured 10 batters, seven base hits and, most importantly, four runs.
In a blink of an eye, a Lynchburg team that had but two hits against Cegarra through six innings was out-hitting the Blue Rocks 9-3 at the conclusion of the hectic frame.
It appeared as if the Blue Rocks were toast at that point, as Lynchburg starter Michael Crotta polished off the Blue Crew in the next half-inning, establishing a new season high for himself with seven full innings of work. The righty was every bit as good as Cegarra had been the prior six innings, having set down 16 straight Blue Rocks bridging the first and sixth innings. Josh Johnson's one-out single in the sixth - his second knock of the game - broke the drought, though it would not result in any scoring.
But, Wilmington would finally threaten and score in the eighth, when Crotta (7-5) departed in favor of Eric Krebbs. While Crotta had not walked a batter through seven frames, Krebbs began the eighth by giving free passes to both Jarrod Dyson and Anthony Seratelli. Krebbs fanned Bigler for the first out, but then walked Derrick Robinson to load the bases for Johnson. The Wilmington shortstop sent a tricky grounder to the right side that second bagger Angel Gonzalez clumsily managed to field and underhand to the covering pitcher for the out. A run scored on the play, as Dyson crossed home to cut the Lynchburg lead to 4-1.
With two outs in the eighth, Hillcats manager Jeff Branson brought on his closer, Kevin Roberts, to face All-Star Joe Dickerson with a pair of runners in scoring position. The move paid off, as the righty reliever induced a foul pop to the catcher to snuff out the remaining threat.
Wilmington went down without much fight in the ninth and Roberts logged his team-leading seventh save. The lone positive from the last-gasp inning occurred when Mertins singled to second base with one one-out, extending his team-best hitting streak to 10 games and leaving him one shy of his season and team high.
With a 3-3 homestand in the rearview, the Blue Rocks begin a daunting six-game swing through the Carolinas, beginning with a 7 p.m. contest at Kinston's Historic Grainger Stadium on Wednesday night. Wilmington will feature righty Mario Santiago (6-4, 4.01). Indians southpaw Shawn Nottingham (0-0, 5.87) will oppose him.
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