Indians fell Hillcats in the ninth on a bases-loaded hit

Jake Cuffman’s pitch came high and tight, and Kinston’s Carlos Rivero twisted to the ground like someone who had just avoided a bruise.

He did, but he was awarded first base anyway. Home plate umpire Drew Ashcraft paused before raising both arms to call for time. The ball had grazed Rivero’s jersey sleeve.

Rivero trotted to first and, because the bases were loaded, forced a run across the plate to give Kinston a 7-6 victory against the Hillcats on Thursday night.

Some, like Lynchburg catcher Kris Watts, didn’t think that’s a call you make with the game tied in the second to last inning of a tie game.

Hillcats manager Jeff Branson, who chooses his discussions with umpires carefully, argued to no avail, but accepted the call afterward.

“I’m not going to say it didn’t hit him. Obviously, he thought it did hit him because he made the call,” Branson said. “If it did hit him, then his job is to make that call, regardless of the situation. He was 100 percent sure that it hit him.

“You live with it.”

Lynchburg’s last gasp came up just short. Thanks to a dropped fly ball, the Hillcats (27-40) had two on with two outs for all-star third baseman Jim Negrych in the ninth.

Kinston’s all-star closer Luis Perdomo, whose 15 saves are tops in the league, started him off with a strike on the outside edge. After a ball evened the count, Perdomo got Negrych to swing over two sharp breaking balls, punctuating the game-ending strikeout with a fist pump.

“Negrych just got beat,” Branson said. “That’s it.”

It was the final turn of a back-and-forth loss for Lynchburg, which closes the first half of the Carolina League season with three more games against Kinston (34-32).

The Hillcats jumped to a 5-3 lead after five innings but gave it back. Alex Castillo, who doubled in his first two at bats, hit a two-run homer off reliever Adam Simon in the seventh to tie things at 5.

Kinston took the lead on Jerad Head’s two-out, broken bat RBI single in the eighth, but Lynchburg’s Jamie Romak answered in the bottom of the inning, launching the first pitch he saw from reliever Jim Deters (4-2) out to left for his team-best 11th home run this year.

It stayed tied in at 6 until the ninth, when Cuffman (1-1) ran into control problems.

He gave up a one-out double to Johnny Drennen and walked Beau Mills on four pitches. Nick Weglarz hit into a fielder’s choice before Cuffman walked Jared Goedert on five pitches to load the bases.

The right-hander got ahead of Castillo 1-2 before a fastball whizzed up and in and brushed Rivero’s sleeve, giving Kinston the lead.

It was the latest saga in what has been a season-long story of control problems for Cuffman, who, due to a fastball that rarely moves in the same direction two pitches in a row, has 28 walks in 31 innings this season.

“Up, down, out, in,” Branson said. “He’s a guy who is just a swing-and-miss pitcher because his ball moves so much. And it’s tough to control pitches when they’re constantly moving.”

Hillcats starter Jared Hughes didn’t factor into the decision despite another strong start.

He went 5 2/3 innings and struck out three, giving up three runs on four hits.

But two of those runs were fluky. One scored in the third when a two-out grounder took a bad hop on Negrych at third. Kinston’s fifth-inning run was scored by the leadoff hitter, Head, who struck out and reached on a wild pitch.

Since starting the year 1-8 with a 5.59 ERA, Hughes has a 2.38 ERA in his last four starts, pitching into the sixth inning in three of them.

“I’m smoother,” Hughes said. “I’m not really thinking about anything mechanically out there. I’m trying to just play catch. And for some reason, it’s really working.”

NOTES: Lynchburg played without either of its regular middle infielders. Shortstop Brian Friday was a late scratch with a sore back that kept him out of four of the team’s six road games last week. Gonzalez was given a regular day off. … The Hillcats will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1983 Lynchburg Mets by donning retro Mets uniforms tonight. They will be auctioned off during the game.