'Cats Toss Third Straight Shutout in 3-0 Win
SUMMARY
Lynchburg shut out Carolina, 3-0 for its third consecutive shutout and seventh straight victory Thursday at City Stadium. The 'Cats have not allowed a run in 29 consecutive innings dating back to July 17 at Wilmington. The pitching staff has only allowed 11 hits in the past three games combined. Thomas Pannone started his first game in a Hillcat uniform and had a dominant performance.
PANNONE KEEPS PITCHING STREAK GOING
Thomas Pannone joined the Hillcats July 14 at Carolina where he entered a rain suspended game in the third inning. In Thursday's outing against the Mudcats the lefty threw seven innings and surrendered a lone hit in the fifth. Between a first inning walk and the fifth inning hit, he retired 13 consecutive batters. After allowing the hit he retired the remaining seven batters he faced in order. Pannone was around the strike zone consistently as he recorded a 74.4 strike rate.
"I just wanted to establish my strike zone with my fastball and feel comfortable in my delivery," said Pannone. "I just wanted to get ahead and stay ahead. I got a lot of quick outs, pop outs, and weak contact, so it was good."
David Speer entered the game in the eighth inning and allowed two hits in his two innings of work. The lefty struck out four batters without allowing a walk to secure the shutout victory and lower his ERA to 1.67. Carolina did not put a runner in scoring position for the entire contest.
SANTA CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS EARLY
On "Christmas in July Night" at City Stadium, Anthony Santander connected on his 15th home run of the season in the first inning to give the Hillcats an early 1-0 lead.Santander has now hit five home runs in his last seven games. He led the offense with a two-hit performance. Taylor Murphy walked and was followed with a Paul Hendrixdouble to place runners on second and third in the fifth inning. Greg Allen grounded out to the second baseman to bring in Murphy.
The 'Cats tacked on their third run of the game in the eighth inning. Mark Mathias singled and later scored on a Yu-Cheng Chang double. Mathias' base hit extended his streak to 13 games, which is now the longest active streak in the Carolina League after teammate Tyler Krieger saw his 15-game hitting streak snapped on an 0-4 day.
SHORT HOPS
The Hillcats recorded their 11th shutout of the season…Lynchburg shut out 10 opponents all of last season…Lynchburg is the lone team in the Carolina League to not be shutout this season. The Hillcats have defeated the Mudcats in their last 10 matchups…The 'Cats improved to 32-10 when scoring in the first inning and 47-12 when scoring the first run of the game in general.
ON DECK
Lynchburg and Carolina will meet for two games Friday beginning at 6 p.m. Sean Brady (9-3, 4.45) will start the first game for the Hillcats and face off against Andrew Thurman. Fans can listen to the action on 93.3 FM and 1320 AM as well as www.lynchburg-hillcats.com.