Potomac took advantage of a throwing error by Hillcats shortstop Andrelton Simmons to score four unearned runs in the top of the eighth and held on for a 6-3 victory that clinched the Nationals’ spot in the Carolina League playoffs.
The loss eliminated the Hillcats from playoff contention. Potomac will face Frederick in the Northern Division series next week.
With the game tied at 1, Eliecer Cardenas retired the first two batters in the eighth, but Zach Walters and Sandy Leon followed with singles, setting up Simmons’ costly error. Sean Nicol hit roller to Simmons, whose throw short-hopped first baseman Joey Terdoslavich, allowing Nicol to reach base and Walters to score.
A walk to Eury Perez loaded the bases and Francisco Soriano drew another walk to score Leon. Finally, Jeff Kobernus singled scoring Nicol and Perez to give the Nationals a 5-1 lead.
"(Simmons) made big plays for us all year long," Hillcats manager Luis Salazar said. "He’s saved us a lot of runs. Tonight was just one of those things where he tried to make soft (cautious) throw to first with a fast runner. It cost us four runs. He’ll learn from this and just turn it loose next time. Nobody feels worse than he does."
Lynchburg (58-75) still has to play out the string and doesn’t want to let up after playing well late in the season to make a push for the playoffs.
"We wanted to get it back to the point where this series with Potomac mattered," Salazar said. "We did that. We battled (Tuesday) night like it was a playoff game. It was a tough game and tonight was another tough game. Now we have five games left. We just need play hard and finish strong."
The starting pitchers for both teams were fantastic. Adam Olbrychowski (5-7) was perfect through the first 3 2/3 innings for the Nationals. He allowed just two hits, one a home run by Barrett Kleinnecht to break up to the perfect game, and walked one through 7 1/3 innings. He struck out six.
"We couldn’t do anything against him," Salazar said. "He was lights out. He was perfect into the fourth inning. He held us to one run."
Lynchburg starter pitcher David Hale went six innings, allowed one run, six hits, a walk and struck out nine but didn’t figure in the decision. Cardenas took the loss despite not allowing an earned run. He allowed four unearned runs, two hits, two walks and struck out three over 1 2/3 innings.
All three of Lynchburg’s runs came off the long ball. Kneinknecht’s home run in the fourth was his seventh of the season. Terdoslavich’s homered in ninth with two outs and Kleinknect on first. It was his 18th home run of the season. He remains a two-base hit shy of tying Woody Fair’s 65-year old single-season record of 51 doubles.
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