UPDATE: Hillcats eliminate Wilmington, advance to finals

He was the only guy who hadn’t played.

That was P.J. Forbes’ quick explanation of what compelled him to pencil Erik Huber into the seventh spot in the Hillcats’ lineup for Sunday’s decisive fifth game of the Carolina League Northern Division Championship Series. Alex Presley and Jared Keel had split the starts in the first four games of the series, and though Huber had played a game in left during a brief demotion to Low-A West Virginia, he hadn’t played left for the Hillcats.

If anything, 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. Pedro Alvarez and Miles Durham carried much of the load offensively, different players seem to step up in clutch situations time and again. Such was the case Sunday.

Huber, nearly forgotten in the hype of Starling Marte’s promotion to Lynchburg, hit two doubles and threw out two Wilmington baserunners from left field.

Josh Harrison, who went hitless in his first 18 at-bats in the series, drove in four runs, including three on a seventh-inning double that broke the game open.

And pitcher Bryan Morris, who was suspended in July for “unprofessional conduct” by the Pirates and was Wilmington’s punching bag this season (0-3, 11.68 ERA), had his best start of the season in a pressure spot, possibly the biggest game of his career, allowing just one earned in 6 2/3 innings.

But in a tight game with a berth in the Mills Cup championship series on the line, it was Huber who came up huge. The Hillcats led 2-1 in the fourth when he uncorked a throw from left on a Nick Van Stratten two-out single. Tony Sanchez made the catch and tagged Eric Hosmer out. In the sixth, Hosmer rapped a single to left, and Huber again unleashed a rope to the plate, which Sanchez caught to tag Johnny Giavotella a second before he touched home.

“He made me look really smart tonight,” said Forbes, who open the “460 Series” tonight at home against Salem.

Not only that, but Huber’s arm gave Morris the confidence to throw strikes. He trusted and commanded his fastball. Fifty of the 68 pitches he threw were fastballs, and the only walk he issued was to the final batter he faced.

And once Huber made the first of his outfield assists, Morris relaxed.

“That’s tremendous,” Morris said. “That lets me know, let them hit it, because I’ve got the defense be-hind me making plays. When your defense is making plays like that, you’re not scared of the bat.”

Lynchburg, though, seemed like it was for the first three games of the series. The Hillcats scored two runs in three games and fell behind 2-1 in the sixth in Game 4 when Alex Presley hit an infield single with runners at second and third with two outs to tie the game. In the eighth, Tony Sanchez hit his first Carolina League home run to break the tie, and the clutch hits just rolled in from there.

All five of the Hillcats’ runs Sunday came with two outs. Harrison was 1-for-19 in the series when he came up with the bases loaded in the seventh and Lynchburg leading 2-1. Facing Wilmington reliever Louis Coleman, Harrison worked the count to 1-1 before turning on an inside fastball and dropping it down the left-field line for a bases-clearing hit and a 5-1 Lynchburg lead.

“In a game like this, you really have to take advantage of your opportunities,” Harrison said. “The first four games, we had some chances that we really let slip by. It was one of those things where I put a good swing on a pitch I was looking for. … Starting (Saturday) with Sanchez’s two-run home run, we had been in that situation before, but we just weren’t coming up with the timely hit.

“The past two games, we got timely hits, and it resulted in two wins for us.”

The Hillcats and Salem split 20 games this season, with the Red Sox winning here on Labor Day to clinch a spot in the Southern Division Championship Series. Salem swept Winston-Salem in three straight in that one, and now the teams will meet for the Mills Cup for the first time. Lynchburg is making its first championship series appearance since 2003 and last won the Mills Cup in 2002.

Salem lost to Frederick in the 2007 Mills Cup series and last won the title in 2001.

The Hillcats are the only team in the Pirates’ organization playing meaningful baseball at this point, and with a roster full of Top 30 prospects, especially on the pitching staff, Forbes wants his players to take pride in the idea that winning a championship in Lynchburg can be a starting point for a franchise desper-ately seeking an organizational turnaround.

Said Forbes: “It’s starts within, the players understand that. They’re the ones who are setting the prece-dent. If we’re going to change the culture and make this a winning organization, they’re setting the tone. They’ve made the playoffs, and they’ve got a chance to finish the deal.”