Cats climb to win

By Andy Bitter

Published: June 26, 2008

The Hillcats so enjoyed last week’s walk-off win — their first all season — that they figured they’d try it again Thursday.

Alex Presley slapped an opposite field single to score Kent Sakamoto with the game-winning run in the ninth inning of Lynchburg’s 4-3 victory against Winston-Salem at City Stadium.

“I can get used to it,” Hillcats manager Jeff Branson said of the walk-off wins, which have been few and far between this season.

The Hillcats (3-4) matched their longest winning streak of the year at three games, stretching back to before the all-star break.

Presley, the team’s No. 9 hitter, got his chance after Sakamoto worked a leadoff walk against Winston-Salem reliever Henry Mabee (0-1) in the bottom of the ninth and moved up on Kris Watts’ sac bunt and Jared Keel’s nubber just in front of the plate.

With Warthogs reliever Steven Spurgeon on the mound, Presley saw a splitter and a fastball, falling be-hind 0-2 in the count.

“I knew I was going to see offspeed because he had an open base to play with,” Presley said. “I was just trying to stay up the middle, put the ball in play.”

Spurgeon threw him another splitter and Presley went opposite field, hitting a sharp grounder to the hole, past a diving Gregory Paiml at short to end things.

“Any win is fun,” Presley said. “But walk-off wins are especially gratifying.”

Moises Robles (1-1) earned the win after pitching a scoreless ninth.

The Warthogs dropped to 4-3 in the second half.

Lynchburg starter Michael Crotta had an encouraging outing, a week after giving up nine earned runs and recording just three outs in a loss at Kinston, the worst start of his career.

He gave up two runs on seven hits in six innings Thursday, his third-longest outing of the season. After striking out nobody in his disastrous start in Kinston, he matched a season high with six strikeouts against the Warthogs.

“It was pretty rough,” Crotta said of the time since his last start, which was longer than usual because of the all-star break. “It just gives you that much more fire to get stuff done. You want to come back out and show that you’re better than the last outing.

“You can’t dwell on the good or the bad or it’s going to catch up to you.”

The only runs Crotta gave up came on a two-run single by Paulo Orlando in the third.

Though he let the leadoff batter reach in four innings, Crotta repeatedly pitched out of trouble, inducing a pair of double-play balls and stranding a runner at third in the fourth by striking out the final two batters of the inning.

“He obviously kept his focus,” Branson said. “It’s him keeping the ball down, getting the ground balls, letting his defense work for him and getting out of jams. I was very impressed.”

Lynchburg got its runs one at a time. Sakamoto tripled off the right field wall in the second, scoring Ja-mie Romak from first to make it 1-0.

After Winston-Salem scored two in the third, the Hillcats tied things up thanks to recent call-up Jose De Los Santos’ bloop double into right and Angel Gonzalez’s RBI single.

Romak untied things with a solo home run on the first pitch he saw to lead off the fourth. That gives the slugger 12 home runs for the season, three shy of the league lead.

Winston-Salem’s No. 9 hitter Estee Harris evened things again in the eighth with a solo home run off re-liever Kevin Roberts. Harris finished a triple shy of the cycle.

NOTES: Lynchburg’s all-star shortstop Brian Friday went on the disabled list with an inflamed disc in his back and will head to the Pirates’ spring training facility in Bradenton, Fla., on Sunday to begin his rehab, which could be a while. “I can’t put a time frame on it,” Branson said, “but it’s not going to be a quick thing.” De Los Santos and Gonzalez will both see time at short in Friday’s absence.