Mercer's HR reversed in 10th, Hillcats fall in 12th

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. But home-plate umpire Kolin Kline had put his right forefinger in the air and twirled it around, the sign for home run.

Potomac manager Trent Jewett raced out to talk to Kline, and after Kline conferenced with base umpire Mike Goebel, who said the ball went just left of the foul pole. There was no video replay needed to overturn this home run.

Game on.

Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes clearly wasn’t happy upon hearing the reversal. He argued vehemently with both umpires, and Lynchburg hitting coach Dave Howard even started jawing with Goebel.

“He’s the worst umpire in the league,” Forbes said. “The fact that he’s trying to do the home-plate umpire’s job when he can’t even do his own job, in a nutshell, that sums him up. He’s butchered calls night after night. He gets yelled at by both teams night after night. He’s just the worst umpire in the league. And it’s a shame, because all it does is hurt the kids.

“When he’s behind the plate, you don’t know from pitch to pitch what’s a strike and what’s a ball. In the field, you never know what’s going to happen. He makes stuff up, like calling (first baseman Matt) Hague off the base on a routine play (in the 10th inning). That’s vintage him though. He’s just a bad umpire. It’s a shame we have to deal with it.”

Once Mercer returned to the plate and struck out, he expressed his displeasure with the call, and Kline immediately ejected him.

“It’s not his call. He had no business,” Forbes said of Goebel. “Kolin saw the ball disappear. And he said that to me. So I said how can you let him overturn it if that’s what you saw? He had no business even being involved in the play. But that’s how bad he is. He doesn’t know any better.”

Lynchburg unraveled in the 12th inning, as Potomac turned four hits, two walks and a hit batsmen into six runs and turned the once tight game into an 8-3 rout.

This six-game Hillcat homestand was bookended by brutal losses. They blew a two-run lead with two outs in the top of the ninth in the first game, last Friday against Salem, before losing when the Red Sox put up a four spot in the 15th inning.

Thursday’s loss was even more devastating, seeing as Lynchburg believed it had the game won.

With one out and the bases loaded in the 12th, Potomac’s Tim Pahuta slammed a grounder right up the middle. It tagged off pitcher Chris Cullen’s ankle and caromed into short right field. Michael Martinez and Michael Burgess scored, giving Potomac a 4-2 lead. Aaron Seuss later roped a run-scoring single off the left-field wall, and Dan Nelson broke it wide open with a three-run triple to push the lead to 8-2.

Much earlier in the night, Ronald Uviedo returned to the mound for the Hillcats after missing more than a month with tendinitis in his right elbow. The only Lynchburg player on the Pirates’ 40-man roster, Uviedo wasn’t sharp in his return. He allowed a two-run home run to Francisco Plasencia in the first inning and tiptoed around trouble for the rest of his outing.

He pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and two earned runs. He walked a season-high four batters and struck out two. Previously, Uviedo made three appearances for the Pirates’ Gulf Coast League team, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in 8 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out 10 in his stint with the Baby Bucs.