Hillcats dismantle K-Tribe with epic offensive night

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Hillcats dismantle K-Tribe with epic offensive night
06/13/2009 11:45 PM ET
Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg scored a season-high 16 runs in their 16-5 trouncing of Kinston on Saturday night at Grainger Stadium. Pedro Alvarez had his first multi-homer game of his career, smacked his first grand slam and drove-in a career-best seven runs in the win. The Hillcats go for the series sweep on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Kinston.
The first run of the night for the Hillcats scored in the top of the second inning when Eddie Prasch doubled in Kris Watts, who tripled with one out. Prasch, who entered the game with three RBI on the season, drove in another run in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
It wasn't until the fifth inning that Hillcats starter Brian Morris allowed a hit to the Indians. The right-hander allowed just one run in five and 1/3 innings in earning the win in his second start of the season.
Lynchburg busted the game wide open in the sixth inning with a seven more runs. Pedro Alvarez hit the first grand slam of his professional career in the inning. His no-doubt shot out to dead center was the only hit in the inning, as the K-Tribe walked four and hit two batters in the frame. That put the lead up to nine at 9-0.
Kinston finally got on the board in the sixth inning with a run on an RBI double by Lonnie Chisenhall. They added two more runs in the seventh inning on back-to-back homers by Richard Martinez and Adam Davis to make it 9-3.
In the eighth inning the Hillcats responded with a four-run frame. Kent Sakamoto singled in the first run and Watts hit his fourth home run of the season in the inning as well. Watts went 4-for-4 on the night with a triple, a home run, three runs scored and three RBI. It was 13-3 at that point.
That wasn't all for the Lynchburg offense, in the top of the ninth inning Alvarez smacked a three-run laser of a long ball out to right to make it a 16-3 game. It was the first multi-homer game of his career and his first seven-RBI game. It was also the third time this season the Hillcats have had a multi-homer performance.
The K-Tribe would plate two runs in the ninth inning with a two-run homer by Tim Fedroff to cut the lead to 11. Chris Cullen gave up three home runs in relief for Lynchburg, he had not allowed a homer all season prior to this game.
The 16 runs were the most by the Hillcats this season, the 11 runs in the sixth matched the most in an inning by the Cats this season (the other time was at Kinston as well) and it was and it was just the third time this season they have homered three times in a game.
The win for Morris (1-1) was his first of the season, his first as a Hillcat and his first at the Advanced-A level. Lynchburg (40-20) earned their fourth straight win and moved to 20 games over .500 for the first time all season. The loss went to starter Bryce Stowell (0-2) for Kinston (25-35).
The Cats win combined with a Potomac loss has shrunk Lynchburg's magic number down to five to clinch the first-half Northern Division Championship with nine games left in the first half.
The Hillcats go for their second road series sweep of the season on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the finale of this three-game series at Kinston. Left-hander Jeff Locke (1-4, 5.44) will toe the rubber for the Cats opposite righty Paulo Espino (1-2, 2.23) for the Indians.
You can tune-in to all the live action beginning at 1:40 p.m. with the Hillcats On-Deck Show on FM 105.5 KD Country, 96.9 FM in Roanoke and on the web at www.kdcountry.com.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.