Hillcats blast past visiting K-Tribe

By: Staff | The News & Advance
Published: August 30, 2011

Back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning sent Lynchburg past Kinston, 3-2, on Monday at City Stadium.

The Hillcats (28-33) took an early lead in the bottom of the second when Barrett Kleinknecht led off with a double. Marcus Lemon drove in Kleinknecht two batters later with another double. Kinston (32-29) tied it at 1-1 in the top of the third, stringing together the only two hits the K-Tribe got against Lynchburg starter Gary Moran.

Kinston took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Doug Pickens off Hillcats reliever Jeremy Haynes.

Kinston went to its bullpen in the seventh, replacing Francisco Jimenez, who gave up just four hits, with Kyle Landis. Leading off the inning, Kleinknecht smacked a solo homer, his second home run in as many nights. Geraldo Rodriguez followed with a sharply hit line drive that just hooked inside the foul pole, giving the Hillcats a 3-2 lead.

Andrew Wilson worked a perfect eighth in his return to Lynchburg and Eliecer Cardenas pitched a perfect ninth to earn his seventh save of the year.

Lynchburg continues its season-ending homestand tonight as Potomac comes to town for a four-game series. The Hillcats trail first-half champion Frederick by nine games but the runner-up Nationals by only five and a half with eight games to play in the second-half standings.

Chris Masters (9-5) will start for the Hillcats and face Evan Bronson (5-4) for the Nationals. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.