Hillcats beat the heat with refreshing late-night rallies

It was 100 degrees when the Lynchburg Hillcats hosted Salem on Friday in their first game back in town since July 16, Christmas in July Night at City Stadium.

The Hillcats bats’ were nearly as hot, providing a summer snowball of support for a pitching staff that has endured plenty of tough-luck losses this season.

One night after ending an 11-game road trip during which they hit just .211 as a team and were shut out four times, Lynchburg batters racked up 13 hits with three home runs — including solo shots by eighth batter Marcus Lemon and ninth batter L.V. Ware — in a thrilling, if not chilling, 8-7 win, a back-and-forth slugfest waged in sweltering heat.

"We battled back after taking the lead 5-1 (in the fifth) and tying it up 7-7 (in the sixth)," Hillcats manager Luis Salazar said. "The kids don’t have any give-up in them. They’re feisty."

In a showdown between clean-up hitters, the Hillcats’ Joey Terdoslavich (2-for-5, 3 RBIs) came out on top of the Red Sox’s Dan Butler (3-for-4, 4 RBIs) by delivering a clutch two-out, game-winning RBI double down the right field line, scoring Phil Gosselin (3-for-3, 3 RBIs) from first.

"Terdoslavich hit a big (double) to win the game and Gosselin got three key hits today, especially with two outs," Salazar said. "Absolutely, they put us on their back."

Lynchburg starting pitcher Chris Masters struggled through a rocky first inning, when he gave up two hits and issued one of four walks and one Red Sox run on a single by Butler — for his 21st RBI in 18 games against the Hillcats. But he settled down and got into a groove with his crafty left-handed delivery, not allowing another hit until the fifth, another single by Butler, and leaving with a 5-1 lead.

He nearly started an inning-ending double play on a comebacker by the next batter, Jorge Padron, gloving the ball behind his back before throwing to shortstop Andrelton Simmons to retire Butler, with Simmons’ relay to first a split-second late.

That’s when the Hillcats uncorked their offense off reliever Anatanaer Batista, sparked by a leadoff home run by Lemon, his second of the season, and capped by Terdoslavich’s 14th shot, a thunderous jolt launched high over the right-center field fence.

Batista (five runs on four hits in one inning pitched) was as ineffective in relief of starter Stolmy Pimentel (four IP, three hits, no runs) as Jeremy Haynes (one IP, 4 hits, 6 runs) was in relief of Masters.

"It was definitely a tough game, pitching-wise, (but) our relievers did a good job of being aggressive and got after it," said Masters, who ended Lynchburg’s four-game skid against the Red Sox in Salem last Saturday before getting a no-decision Friday night. "It’s tough to pitch against a team back-to-back times, but you’ve just got to be creative going about it and try not to do anything that’s predictable.

"Tonight, I didn’t have my best stuff, but I felt I held it together and gave my team a chance to win."

Mark Lamm (1-0) picked up the win with two innings of no-hit relief before former Liberty University pitcher Andrew Wilson earned his fifth save by working out of a jam in the ninth after walking the first two batters he faced. He gave up a sacrifice bunt that moved the tying and go-ahead runners into scoring position before striking out ninth batter Shannon Wilkerson, who had walked twice and reached on an infield hit in his three previous trips to the plate.