Split victory

The Hillcats knocked around the hottest pitcher in the league in the first game of a doubleheader Thursday.

Kinston returned the favor in the nightcap.

Lynchburg ended Indians starter Hector Rondon’s seven-game winning streak with a 7-1 win at City Stadium, but Kinston responded with a 9-2 win in the second game.

The Hillcats (12-8) are still 6-2 on their current nine-game homestand, which comes to an end tonight. Lynchburg leads Potomac by one game in the Northern Division.

Nobody in the Carolina League had been hotter in the last month than Rondon (7-4), who had allowed one earned run in his previous 24 2/3 innings.

Lynchburg wasn’t fazed. The Hillcats didn’t hammer Rondon, but they found their spots, getting to him for six runs in 4 2/3 innings.

It started in the second. Miles Durham reached on an infield single, stole second and moved to third before Kent Sakamoto walked. Alex Presley followed by getting just enough of a low, outside pitch to squirt it down the left field line for a double that made it 1-0.

Two batters later, Jose De Los Santos chopped a single that found a hole up the middle. Two runs scored to give the Hillcats a 3-0 lead.

“It’s good placement of hitting,” Hillcats manager Jeff Branson joked. “We squared some balls up and we got some hits that weren’t squared up. But good placement, that’s part of the game. You don’t always have to hit it hard to get hits.”

Lynchburg added four more runs in the fifth. Angel Gonzalez hit a bloop double, Jim Negrych singled and Jamie Romak snuck a two-run double inside the left field line to start the inning.

Rondon left two batters later. By the end of the inning, it was 7-0.

“Everybody is picking everybody else up,” said Presley, who was 3-for-3 with two RBIs in the first game. “Things are just going really well right now.”

Hillcats starter Tony Watson looked sharp in what was an abbreviated start. With Wednesday’s rainout and Jared Hughes making a spot start for Double-A Altoona, Lynchburg’s rotation needed some shuffling.

The plan is to have Watson pitch again Monday on three days rest. That limited him to 65 pitches Thursday.

He made the most of them. Watson tossed four shutout innings, scattering three hits and striking out two. Of his 61 pitches, 43 were strikes.

“Ever since college I’ve just been trying to pound the strike zone and see what happens,” Watson said. “More times than not, when you throw strikes, good things are going to happen.”

Though 5-8 on the year (he didn’t pitch the requisite five innings for a win Thursday), Watson is quietly emerging as Lynchburg’s staff ace.

It’s the second straight outing in which he didn’t allow a run. In his last four starts, Watson is 1-0 with a 1.21 ERA and 18 strikeouts. And he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in any start this year, holding opponents to two runs or less in 13 of them.

“He’s consistently down in the zone and making quality pitches,” Branson said.

Blair Johnson (3-1) earned the win, giving up one unearned run in three innings of relief.

Kinston (10-10) jumped all over Lynchburg starter Derek Antelo in the second game. The first three batters of the game reached before Jared Goedert hit a grand slam to center. It was Goedert’s eighth home run of the year and the second grand slam he’s hit against the Hillcats.

The Indians led 5-0 after one inning and 7-0 after three. All the runs were charged to Angelo (2-1), who gave up 10 hits.

Lynchburg managed just four hits.

“Not to make an excuse for the hitters — we still have to be able to put together some good ABs — but when you’re trying to come back from a 5-0 deficit, that puts a little damper on things,” Branson said.

Gonzalez accounted for both of the Hillcats’ runs, crushing his second home run of the year in the third inning and hitting a leadoff triple and later scoring in the sixth. He was 4-for-6 in the doubleheader.

Notes

Hillcats stolen base king Pedro Powell is back in Lynchburg and will be available to sign autographs before tonight’s game. Powell, who led the Carolina League in stolen bases in 2006 and ’07, was recently released by the Pirates. He played the entire first half as a utility outfielder at Double-A Altoona. … Hughes took the loss in his spot start for the Curve, giving up five runs on four hits. He walked four in his five innings.