Go to any amateur baseball game, from college to high school to Little League, and the calls from the crowd are unmistakable. Any time a pitcher makes a strange pickoff move, the screams of “Balk! Balk!” cascade through the crowd.

Josh Papelbon had to check his ego at the door when he decided to try this professional baseball thing.

John Smoltz skipped Salem in his injury rehabilitation assignment Tuesday, which deprived Lynchburg baseball fans of seeing one of the major league’s all-time great pitchers.

But even Smoltz would have found it difficult to match Hillcats starting hurler Chi-Hung Cheng and Lynchburg’s relief corps.

Cheng threw five scoreless innings and relievers Dustin Molleken and R.J. Rodriguez completed the shutout in a 4-0 win over the Red Sox at City Stadium.

The Lynchburg Hillcats extended their lead over the Potomac Nationals to one and a half games in the Carolina League’s Northern Division with a 13-5 victory in Friday night’s series opener at Potomac.

Lynchburg got its offense going right off the bat in as Jose De Los Santos opened the game with his third triple of the season and scored on a double by Jordy Mercer, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.

One out later, Matt Hague doubled to center and scored on a single by Miles Durham for an early 2-0 lead.

The Hillcats received a solid outing from starting pitcher Paul Mildren, who allowed two runs on eight hits in six innings, and reliever Moises Robles (two scoreless innings), but their offense stalled in a 3-2 loss to the Frederick Keys on Thursday at Harry Grove Stadium.

The Hillcats missed out on facing Orioles top pitching prospect Brian Matusz when the Frederick Keys were in Lynchburg a month ago. They weren’t so lucky in their trip to Maryland.

Matusz, the No. 4 overall pick in last year’s draft, struck out nine and allowed four hits and three runs in a 9-5 Keys win Wednesday at Harry Grove Stadium.

Keys shortstop Pedro Florimon Jr. went 3-for-4 with a solo home run, triple, three RBIs and three runs.

Ronald Uviedo pitched five strong innings, and the Hillcats broke a tie with a run in the top of the sixth in a 2-1 win at Frederick Tuesday night.

Pedro Alvarez hit a game-tying, solo home run in the ninth inning and the Hillcats broke the game open with five runs in the top of the 11th as Lynchburg beat Frederick 13-9 Monday night at Harry Grove Stadium.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Matt McSwain. Toward the end of his career at Elon, right when players are positioning themselves for prime draft position, McSwain blew out his pitching elbow, and Tommy John surgery was the only fix. He never pitched another inning of college baseball.

In his first six at-bats of this series, Mike Moustakas did very little to remind folks why he was the No. 2 pick overall pick in the 2007 MLB first-year player draft and the Kansas City Royals’ top-rated prospect. After driving in a run with a dribbler to right field in his first at-bat Friday, the Wilmington third baseman went hitless in his next five trips to the plate, only once getting the ball out of the infield.

A quartet of Winston-Salem Dash pitchers combined to allow only four hits and strike out 11 in a 4-3 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats at Wake Forest Baseball Park on Wednesday night.

The Hillcats became the first Carolina League team to reach 20 victories Tuesday, using a four-run fifth inning as a springboard to a 6-2 win at Winston-Salem.

Consider this when evaluating Pedro Alvarez’s performance in the first month of the Hillcats’ season. The prized Pittsburgh Pirates prospect hasn’t truly found a rhythm since he was a junior at Vanderbilt in 2007. And as Hillcats hitting coach Dave Howard points out, hitting is all about rhythm and timing.

The Atlanta Braves could use a couple more young sluggers in their slumping lineup these days.

The Toronto organization was convinced Chi-Hung Cheng wasn’t the same pitcher that he was before he underwent surgery on his left shoulder. Cheng was a workhorse for two seasons for Toronto’s low-A affiliate in Lansing, Mich., racking up 280 1/3 innings, an 18-11 record and a 2.92 ERA in 2005 and 2006.

Kinston southpaw Eric Berger has experienced highs and lows as drastic as his 12-to-6 curveball in his recovery from Tommy John surgery on his left elbow three years ago.

Some of Kent Sakamoto’s early-season struggles might have been the result of him pressing too much to pull the ball over the outfield wall. Ironically, it was a different approach that led to the Lynchburg Hillcats designated hitter’s first two home runs of the season Friday night at City Stadium.

At some point, the victories will come for Hillcats pitcher Ronald Uviedo. Until then, he’ll have to be satisfied with stringing together strong performances.

Brian Matusz certainly doesn’t have the ego of a 22-year-old multi-millionaire. The Orioles’ top pitching prospect has an easy-going demeanor, his speech peppered with “yes sir” and “nice to meet you.” That’s all fine and good when dealing with teammates in the clubhouse or with fans seeking an autograph. Frederick Keys pitching coach Kennie Steenstra just wishes the young southpaw didn’t take that humility with him to the bump.

“If anything, I’d like him to get a little cockier out there on the mound,” Steenstra said. “At times, he doesn’t trust his stuff enough. I don’t think he realizes how good his stuff really is.”

Two years ago, Phillies farmhand Michael Dubee was pitching for the Lakewood BlueClaws in the South Atlantic League when he was traded in mid-season to the White Sox organization for second baseman Tad Iguchi.

Lynchburg fell 8-7 in 10 innings of action in the rubber match of a three-game set at Wilmington on Sunday.

Winston-Salem’s Miguel Socolovich was down 3-1 to Pedro Alvarez when he tricked the Pirates’ top prospect, throwing an inside changeup on a traditional fastball count. Alvarez swung through it, grimaced and shook his head.

Winston-Salem’s Miguel Socolovich was down 3-1 to Pedro Alvarez when he tricked the Pirates’ top prospect, throwing an inside changeup on a traditional fastball count. Alvarez swung through it, grimaced and shook his head.

Jordy Mercer didn’t come to Lynchburg with the same sort of hype that accompanied his 2008 draft classmate, Pedro Alvarez. But plenty was expected from Mercer, the Pirates’ third-round pick who spent three years at Oklahoma State.

Inning-by-inning replay of Monday’s Hillcats-Dash game at City Stadium

Before last season began, the Pirates’ front office made a fundamental change in how the organization’s pitchers were taught.

Four days. Four designated hitters. It’s not a sign of indecisiveness on Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes’ part. Not at all. He wants to keep his hitters fresh, engaged and involved and doesn’t want anyone languishing on the bench for too long.

Summary of Friday’s second game of the Lynchburg Hillcats season, a 14-7 victory over the Potomac Nationals at City Stadium.

Ray Chang’s timing was perfect. Last offseason, he was in China acting as a coach at a Major League Baseball youth camp. While there, he met China’s president of baseball operations. After a brief conversation, Chang was asked to play for Team China in this spring’s World Baseball Classic.

Never mind that Chang was born in Kansas City, Mo., lives in Leewood, Kan., and played college ball at Rockhurst University in Kansas. His Chinese heritage was enough to earn him a spot on the team.

The kind fan in the Cincinnati Reds cap just had just one request — a signed bat.

He had run all the way behind the center field wall at City Stadium to fetch the ball that Pedro Alvarez crushed for his first professional home run, a blast that gave the Hillcats the lead for good Thursday night in their season-opening 6-5 victory over the defending Carolina League champion Potomac Nationals.

As Alvarez signed autographs for fans 15 minutes after the final pitch, the fan handed Alvarez the ball, and Alvarez dutifully headed back into the clubhouse to nab a bat.

Certainly, Alvarez made a good first impression on his new fan base. He went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs, slammed a two-run opposite field home run and rapped a two-run double in the seventh that provided the winning margin.