Hillcats Drop Series Opener

The Hillcats dropped their series opener, 8-1, to the Salem Red Sox Thursday night at City Stadium. Hillcats starter Mark Pope failed to retire a batter in the third inning, as the Red Sox jumped out to a big lead early. James Hoyt went four hitless innings out of the bullpen to try and keep Lynchburg in it, but the Hillcats failed to score again after a William Beckwith solo home run in the first.

The scoring started early as both teams traded solo home runs in the first.  The Red Sox (5-8) scored in the top half on a two-out blast from Garin Cecchini.  The Hillcats (7-6) answered with William Beckwith's drive over the left-center field fence. 

It was Beckwith's fifth home run of the year, tying him with Robby Hefflinger for the team lead and a three-way tie with Winston-Salem's Courtney Hawkins for the league mark.

Beckwith bobbled a grounder to let David Renfroe reach to start the second.  The Hillcats committed two errors in the game and now have a league-high 28 team errors through 13 games this season.  Renfroe would later score on an RBI-groundout from Matty Johnson.

Then the wheels came off.  The first five Sox hitters reached to start the third, including three straight RBI-doubles, before Pope was lifted.  Pope (0-1) went 2+, allowing seven runs, six earned, on seven hits with two walks and a pair of strikeouts. 

James Hoyt came on with runners at the corners and, although he allowed the two inherited runners to score, did not allow a run through four hitless innings out of the 'pen.  Hoyt has not allowed a run in his last three outings (nine innings).

After Beckwith's home run, Sox starter Kyle Stroup, who went 5.1 innings and gave up the one run on six hits and a walk with five punch-outs, stymied the Hillcats offense.  Stroup did run into trouble in the sixth, loading the bases with one out. 

The Red Sox called on Matt Price, who was called up to Salem today, to get them out of the jam.  He got Will Skinner to bounce into an around-the-horn double play to end the inning. Price went 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit while striking out three.

The Red Sox rounded out the scoring with a run in the eighth, an RBI-double from Cecchini off Caleb Brewer.

The Hillcats look to even the series Friday in game two of the four-game series.  First pitch is set for 6:05pm with gates opening at 5pm.  The first thousand fans will get a Hillcats rally towel, courtesy of Pepsi and WLNI.  The Hillcats send Ryan Weber (2-0, 4.35) against Mike Augliera (1-0, 5.73).  If you can't make it to the game, you can join Erik Wilson and Jake Levy for all the play-by-play action starting with the Hillcats On-Deck Show, powered by Honda/Suzuki of Lynchburg, starting at 5:40pm on 97.9 FM The Planet and lynchburg-hillcats.com