Questionable Call Ends Hillcats 10th Inning Hopes

The Lynchburg Hillcats lost a heartbreaker to the Columbia Fireflies in extra innings on Wednesday night by a score of 2-1.

The Hillcats (22-18) were held scoreless until the ninth before tying things up with the Fireflies (12-29) at one.

The Hillcats fell behind early in the second inning off of a solo home run. After that, starting pitcher Jake Miller settled down to record 10 strikeouts in his five innings of work.

The game would remain 1-0 until the bottom of the ninth, when Isaiah Greene would lead off the inning with a triple to center field. He would score one batter later when Jake Fox would bring him home on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

In the tenth, the Fireflies would start with a runner on second and he would score after a sacrifice but went awry to lead off the inning. Benton came off the mound and threw off his back foot to throw the runner at first when the throw went past the first basemen and into shallow right field which would allow the runner to score.

That would be all the support the Fireflies would need as the Hillcats could not muster up a run in the bottom half of the inning, despite having a runner on third to end the game. The final out was a questionable check swing strike three call by the infield umpire, which drew some words from the Hillcats as they left the field.

The Hillcats will look to bounce back tomorrow evening at 6:30 at Bank of the James Stadium.