With a new organization comes new managerial blood for the Lynchburg Hillcats.

The Cincinnati Reds, the new parent club for the Lynchburg franchise, have assigned longtime minor-league manager Pat Kelly to Lynchburg for the 2010 season, where he’ll become the 16th manager in Hillcats history.

No major-league team has had a longer history in Lynchburg than the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have been the Hillcats’ parent club since 1995.

For the second time in his tenure as general manager of the Lynchburg Hillcats, Paul Sunwall has been honored with the Carolina League’s highest executive honor.

The Lynchburg Hillcats are the Carolina League champions, an 8-7 victory Thursday night at Salem Memorial Ballpark completing a 3-0 sweep against the Salem Red Sox.

Hillcats outfielder Jose De Los Santos is not a power hitter.

Behind another strong starting pitching performance and continued clutch hitting, Lynchburg tops Salem 9-2 in Game 1.

The Hillcats’ 5-2 victory over Wilmington proved to echo the theme of the first half of the season, when Lynchburg won the division crown to earn a spot in this series.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Lynchburg rallied from behind twice Saturday night to earn a 5-2 win over Wilmington and even the Northern Division Championship Series at two games apiece.

Before each game, Hillcats pitching coach Dave Howard shares his plan with the team. Wednesday’s plan: Lay off the high fastball, the specialty of Wilmington starter Eduardo Paulino.

Big-game experience. Justin Wilson has it, and that’s one of the reasons the Pittsburgh Pirates were drawn to the left-handed pitcher in the 2008 draft. Wilson was the starting pitcher for Fresno State when the Bulldogs completed their improbable run to a College World Series championship, beating Georgia in Game 3 of the CWS championship series.

Lynchburg pitchers Jeff Locke and Ronald Uviedo combined to shut out Salem as the Hillcats claimed a 1-0 victory Sunday at City Stadium.

Baseball’s top prospects will have even more protection at the plate next season.

Winston-Salem scored six runs in the first inning en route to a 7-4 victory over Lynchburg on Sunday at Wake Forest Baseball Park. With the win, the Dash claimed a series victory over the Hillcats in the three-game set. The Hillcats will take on Potomac at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at Pfitzner Stadium.

The second-half Northern Division-leading Wilmington Blue Rocks continued to roll over the first-half champion Lynchburg Hillcats with a 7-2 Carolina League victory at City Stadium on Thursday.

The only drama involved in the game after the Blue Rocks (77-51) claimed a 7-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning was whether or not Wilmington’s starting pitcher, Alex Caldera, would give up a hit.

The Lynchburg Hillcats continued their struggles at the plate in key situations and Wilmington continued its dominance over the Hillcats this season with a 5-3 11-inning victory at City Stadium on Wednesday.

In the first three games of the four-game series against the Blue Rocks, Lynchburg is a combined 5-for-39 at the plate with runners in scoring position.

A night after a Wilmington grand slam off the bat of Ryan Eigsti and a solo shot from Mike Moustakas helped to put Lynchburg away, the Hillcats were again bit by the long ball.

Johnny Giavotella hit Ronald Uviedo’s fifth pitch of the game over the left-field fence, Clint Robinson led off the fourth with a bomb and Derrick Robinson sent a seventh-inning, full-count offering from Nate Adcock over the right field fence for a go-ahead two-run shot to seal a 4-2 victory for the Blue Rocks.

Wilmington catcher Ryan Eigsti celebrated his 24th birthday in grand fashion Monday in the Blue Rocks’ 7-3 victory over the Hillcats at City Stadium.

Eigsti took a 3-2 pitch from Lynchburg starter Bryan Morris over the left field fence for a grand slam that put Wilmington up 6-0 over the Hillcats going into the bottom of the fourth inning.

Lynchburg bounced back from a 6-3 loss in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Sunday night with a 6-0 victory in the nightcap against Winston-Salem. Jordy Mercer homered and drove in four runs in the double dip. Tonight, a four-game series with Wilmington kicks off starting at 7:05 p.m. at City Stadium.

Six days after arguably the best start of Justin Wilson’s career, when he went seven innings and allowed no runs against 11 strikeouts, the 6-foot-2 right-hander threw another gem, this one a six-inning, five strikeout outing against Winston-Salem.

Despite a 49-minute rain delay, Jeff Locke pitched five strong innings of one-run baseball and the bottom third of the order produced five hits to lead Lynchburg to a 5-1 win over Winston-Salem in the first game of a doubleheader Friday.

Nearly an hour after the rain started, second baseman Chase d’Arnaud delivered an RBI single up the middle that advanced De Los Santos to third. Third baseman Josh Harrison followed that up with a sacrifice fly to right to give the Hillcats a 2-1 lead. Those were all the runs Locke would need.

Justin Wilson pitched a gem for Lynchburg on Sunday night, with seven shutout innings and 11 strikeouts in a 3-0 victory against Myrtle Beach at City Stadium.

Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes concedes his team is struggling. But he denies anyone is going through the motions, waiting for Sept. 9 to arrive.

It’s evident enough from watching Hillcats pitchers Ronald Uviedo and Nate Adcock that both are tired. Uviedo hasn’t been the same since missing a month in the middle of the season with elbow tendinitis, and Adcock has already set a career high for innings pitched.

One can’t blame Bryan Morris for trying to find a positive spin to the recent events that led the Pirates to suspend him for more than a week. But as the Hillcats pitcher returned to the mound for the first time since the July 30 incident that triggered the suspension, he did just that, calling the last few weeks of the regular season a “fresh start.”

And with Pirates director of development Kyle Stark in attendance Wednesday at City Stadium, Morris was focused and determined, working into the seventh inning in Lynchburg’s 6-5 win against Kinston, earning his first victory since June 18.

Paolo Espino wasn’t always this dominant against the Hillcats. Back in June, Lynchburg knocked the Kinston starting pitcher around in back-to-back starts to the tune of 15 hits and nine earned runs.

Lynchburg took advantage of a walk by Kinston relief pitcher Dallas Cawiezell, the second of two errors by the Indians and back-to-back singles by Jordy Mercer and Matt Hague to score the game’s only runs in the top of the ninth inning of a 2-0 victory, Monday night at Grainger Stadium.

Paulo Orlando hit a two-run home run to left in the first inning and added a two-run double in a three-run fourth to lift the Wilmington Blue Rocks to a 6-4 victory over the Lynchburg Hillcats, their second in a row, Tuesday night at Frawley Stadium.

Wilmington cleanup and designated hitter Cliff Robinson doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning and scored the game’s only run on consecutive ground outs by Eric Hosmer and Nick Van Stratten as the host Blue Rocks opened their Carolina League series against the Lynchburg Hillcats with a 1-0 victory, Monday night before a crowd of close to 5,000 at Frawley Stadium.

After speaking at Thursday night’s National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series opening ceremonies at City Stadium, and throwing out the first pitch before the Lynchburg Hillcats played the Potomac Nationals, former Major League World Series champion Tony Womack shared some quality time with players from his alma mater.

The 1987 Gretna graduate who batted leadoff for the 2001 champion Arizona Diamondbacks, met with members of the Hawks’ high school team participating in the NABF tournament, gathered under a tent down the first-base line.

The second it was hit Thursday night, Hillcat players jumped out of the dugout and watched, and watched, and … celebrated. Jordy Mercer’s two-out, 10th inning home run cleared the left-field wall, and everyone from the Lynchburg dugout raced to home plate to meet Mercer and celebrate.

The second it was hit Thursday night, Potomac pitcher Dan Leatherman and catcher Devin Ivany watched, and watched … and lost their minds. Gloves were slammed to the ground. Protests were loud. The ball was foul. They were convinced.