Hillcats pitching coach Rigo Beltran met with reliever Nick Christiani Monday night. The bases were loaded and Winston-Salem’s Ozzie Lewis was at the plate in the seventh inning.
“Rigo came out and said just pound this guy in,” Christiani said. “Obviously, I didn’t have pinpoint command.”
Christiani started Lewis with three straight balls, all inside. After the third, Lynchburg catcher Jordan Wideman turned to home-plate umpire Joey Amaral and asked for Lewis to stop leaning into the plate so much. Lewis didn’t like the request at all, and eventually turned to the Lynchburg dugout at started barking at Beltran and manager Pat Kelly.
That was simply a precursor to what happened next. Amaral warned both dugouts after Lewis’ outburst. Christiani’s fourth pitch drilled Lewis between the numbers, setting off a bench-clearing brawl that resulted in five ejections.
“Tempers were flaring once that happened,” said Christiani, who had hit Seth Loman on the previous at-bat. “It was just an unfortunate situation. … I didn’t see any punches thrown. Just a lot of pushing and pulling.”
The action on the field settled relatively quickly. The same couldn’t be said for the action in the stands. One fan threw a pitcher of beer on the field toward the Winston-Salem players, inciting several Dash players. Another fan kept taunting Loman, and Loman’s Dash teammates had to restrain him.
“It’s bad enough that the players end up skirmishing, but we all know what baseball fights are about,” Kelly said. “It’s unfortunate when the fans get involved. Then it can get really nasty.”
The two fans were ejected from the stadium, but no arrests were made, Hillcats assistant general manager Ronnie Roberts said.
Christiani, Kelly, Loman, Lewis and Winston-Salem shortstop Eduardo Escobar were all ejected. Lewis was the Dash’s designated hitter, and he was replaced by pitcher Leroy Hunt, who was forced to bat in the ninth inning, marking the first time this season a Dash pitcher had batted.
The brawl delayed the game for 22 minutes.
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