Amaya homers, Pelicans lose lead late in loss to Lynchburg

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (April 5, 2019) - Miguel Amaya continued his hot start for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans with a home run in a 2-for-4 performance, but it was not enough to outpace the Lynchburg Hillcats on Friday night from TicketReturn.Com Field at Pelicans Ballpark.

Lynchburg (2-0) picked up right where they left off on Thursday, as Steven Kwan led off the game with a single and scored on an Oscar Gonzalez double with two outs in the first to give the Hillcats a 1-0 lead. 
Myrtle Beach (0-2) came right back in the bottom half of the inning with a run of their own after they opened the frame with three straight singles. Amaya drove home D.J. Wilson for his first RBI of the night and the Birds tied the game at one. 
Mike Rivera led off the second inning with a home run to catapult the Hillcats back in front 2-1. 
The back-and-forth affair continued in the bottom of the second inning. After Jhonny Bethencourt led the inning off with a double, he scored on a Yeiler Peguero infield single and a throwing error from the Hillcats which tied the game at two apiece.
In the third, Amaya blasted a home run to straightaway center field, giving the Pelicans a 3-2 lead. 
Pelicans starter Bryan Hudson was brilliant on the night, throwing five innings, only allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking one. The lefty finished exited with the lead, but ended the night with a no decision. 
Brendan King (0-1), who replaced Hudson, worked a clean sixth inning before Jodd Carter delivered a two-run homer off of the right hander to give Lynchburg a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh. 
The Hillcats added on another run in the eighth inning as Kwan doubled scored on an error to make it 5-3 Lynchburg. 
For the second-straight night, the Hillcats scored a run in the ninth inning as Dillon Persinger scored on a double by Jonathan Laureano to extend the lead to 6-3.
Kyle Nelson came on in the ninth inning and struck out a pair to earn his first save of the season. 
Nick Gallagher (1-0) locked up his first win of the year after throwing three scoreless innings in relief while striking out four for the Hillcats.
The Pelicans will take on the Hillcats in game three of the series on Saturday, with the first pitch coming at 6:05. Paul Richan (0-0) will make his first start for the Pelicans, while the Hillcats will hand the ball to Jean Carlos Mejía (0-0) for the third tilt of the series. The contest will be locally televised on The CW21 and MiLB.TV, with coverage beginning at 6:00 p.m. A radio broadcast will begin at 5:50 on MyrtleBeachPelicans.com/Broadcast, TuneIn and the MiLB First Pitch app. 
Saturday will be a Locals Appreciation Saturday, courtesy of Food Lion, Sparks Toyota, WMBF, The Sun News and NASH FM. Fans can save $3.00 off their game ticket when they present their local ID at the Anderson Brothers Bank Box Office. There will also be a Community Hero Card Set Giveaway to the first 1,000 fans through the gates. After the game there will be a fireworks extravaganza, presented by East Coast Pyrotechnics, and a Postgame Dice Roll Extravaganza where one local fan will have a chance to win up to $25,000, courtesy of HTC and Sparks Toyota. 
The 2019 season is the 21st season for the Pelicans franchise and fifth as the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. For tickets visit MyrtleBeachPelicans.com/tickets, call (843) 918-6000, or visit the Pelicans Box Office.
ABOUT THE PELICANS: The Myrtle Beach Pelicans are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Chicago Cubs and play their home games at TicketReturn.Com Field at Pelicans Ballpark in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Since being acquired by a group led by Chuck Greenberg during the 2006 season, the Pelicans have repeatedly set team attendance records and become known as one of Minor League Baseball's most innovative and creative franchises. The team and its employees have been dedicated to making a difference in the Myrtle Beach community, specifically giving back over $2 million in donations, fundraising proceeds, in-kind services and community service since launching the Pelicans Play It Forward Community Initiative in 2013. TicketReturn.Com Field at Pelicans Ballpark has ranked in the top eight in all of Minor League Baseball by Stadium Journey in six of the last seven seasons. The same publication also placed the Pelicans in the Top 100 Stadium Experiences and the best in the Carolina League for six of the past seven seasons. In June 2017, the Pelicans won the 2017 TripAdvisor.com Certificate of Excellence award. On the field, the team has won four Mills Cup Championships, including claims to back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000, and again in 2015 and 2016. The Pelicans have made 11 postseason appearances behind 13 half-season Southern Division championships, including the first half of the 2015 season, second half of 2016 and first half of 2017. For more information on the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, please contact the Pelicans at (843) 918-6000 or email [email protected].
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