Aguilar's 10th-inning home run lifts Kinston

Jesus Aguilar blasted a leadoff homer to center in the top of the 10th inning to score the game-winning run for Kinston in a 4-3 victory over Lynchburg, Wednesday night at City Stadium.

It was Aguilar’s first home run in 12 games he’s played for the Indians, setting the table for Preston Guilmet to work a scoreless bottom of the 10th to earn his 30th save.

"We had a chance to win tonight," Hillcats manager Luis Salazar said. "We had chances all night. We had a chance in the seventh, the ninth and the 10th."

The Hillcats had a runner on second with one out in each those innings, but failed to score the go-ahead run.

With Lynchburg’s loss and Potomac’s 6-5 defeat of Salem, the Hillcats are now five games back with 24 to play, including four games with the Nationals at City Stadium beginning Aug. 30.

Lynchburg got another strong performance from starting pitcher David Hale. He worked the first seven innings and held Kinston to three runs, two earned, on six hits and two walks while striking out six. Hale was particularly effective in the seventh when he worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by striking out the Indians’ No. 3 and 4 hitters, Aguilar and Jeremie Tice, to keep the score knotted at 3-3.

"Hale had another very strong effort," Salazar said. "That was big (when Hale) struck out the last two batters with the bases loaded."

Over his last five starts, Hale is 2-1 and has held opponents to eight earned runs in 34 1/3 innings of work. He’s also struck out 25 batters and walked just six over the same stretch.

Kinston starting pitcher Mike Rayl had a solid outing himself, holding the Hillcats to three runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out four over 5 2/3 innings. Toru Murata relieved Rayl and tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief before Jose Flores came in and pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the win.

Lynchburg took a 1-0 lead in the second on L.V. Ware’s two-out, RBI single. It held onto that the lead until the fourth when the Indians rallied for three runs.

The real trouble started when Hale fielded Tyler Cannon’s sacrifice bunt and attempted to throw out Aguilar at third. His errant throw ended up in the left field corner, allowing Aguliar to score, Jeremie Trice to advance to third and Cannon to reach second.

Then Tice scored and Cannon went to third on a sacrifice fly by Casey Frawley before Cannon scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat.

"He made a bad throw in the fourth that cost him two runs," Salazar said. "It should have been an easy out, but that’s baseball."

The Hillcats answered right back in the bottom on the fourth, tying the game at 3-3 on Geraldo Rodriguez’s two-run home run to center.

Lynchburg begins a seven-game road trip today at Wilmington.

On Wednesday morning, former Hillcat Arodys Vizcaino was called up to the Atlanta Braves and will join the team in Miami where they are playing the Florida Marlins.

Vizcaino, 20, started the season with the Hillcats, going 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA in nine starts._