From blowout loss to walk-off win

By Andy Bitter

Published: June 21, 2008

Pomp and circumstance usually accompany a walk-off win.

A home run followed by a ritual head slapping at home plate. A line drive to the gap that scores someone from first. A hard-hit ball past a drawn-in infield.

The Hillcats’ first walk-off win of the year lacked that kind of drama. It didn’t alter the satisfaction.

Jim Negrych tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give Lynchburg a much-needed 5-4 come-from-behind win against Myrtle Beach, its first victory in a second half that had gotten off on a horribly wrong foot.

“It’s an interesting way to end a game,” said Negrych, who was a home run shy of the cycle. “I’m just glad that we got off the schneid.”

Lynchburg (1-4) matched its biggest comeback this season, rallying from down four to break a five-game losing streak.

The Hillcats erased the 4-0 deficit in the sixth. Kent Sakamoto hit a bases loaded double that scored two. Eddie Prasch’s RBI grounder and Jared Keel’s RBI single into left, a screaming liner through third baseman Eric Campbell’s glove, started things fresh at 4-4.

That set the scene for the ninth. With one out, Negrych ripped a ball to the right-center field gap, just as he did in the fourth inning. He had to hold up at second on that one, but noticed the Myrtle Beach outfielder took a bad path to the ball the second time and stretched it for a triple.

Pelicans reliever Ferdin Tejeda (2-1) nearly uncorked a wild pitch to cleanup hitter Jamie Romak, but catcher Chris Anderson was able to block it.

An intentional walk brought up Sakamoto, who didn’t even get the chance to play the hero. Tejeda’s first pitch was a breaking ball well wide of the plate and in the dirt. It skipped up off Anderson and to the backstop, allowing Negrych to score from third to end things.

Lynchburg wouldn’t have been in the game if not for starter Brian Holliday, who gave the Hillcats precisely what they needed after being outscored 35-11 the previous two days and not having a starting pitcher make it past the second inning.

Holliday, who had lost seven straight decisions, went six innings, his longest start since April 9, giving up four runs on five hits.

“Our bullpen was shot,” Holliday said. “I knew I was going to wear it one way or another.”

He set the Pelicans down in order the first three innings before they broke through for three runs in the fourth — normally Holliday’s blow-up inning — on a line drive home run by Campbell that barely snuck inside the left field foul pole.

It was 4-0 in the sixth when Myrtle Beach had a chance to put the game out of reach, with runners at second and third and no outs. But Holliday got a grounder and two fly outs to get out of the inning without any damage, still down by four.

“Holliday picked up big time tonight,” Hillcats manager Jeff Branson said.

For a pitcher who had allowed double-digit hits in four of his previous five outings, it was definitely a step forward.

“I felt good,” Holliday said. “I didn’t give up very many hits. And you take away that one pitch that I missed — the home run — then numbers-wise it’s a great game. But I’m always happy when I come out of a game and we’re still in it.”

Recently called up reliever Tom Boleska (1-0) finished things out, throwing three shutout innings and allowing just one baserunner on an error.

The right-hander, a 35th-round pick out of High Point last year, was 3-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 19 appearances at Low-Hickory prior to his call-up. He had 36 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings with the Crawdads.

The win helped the Hillcats avoid their first 0-5 start to the second half in the team’s 14-year history.

“We obviously didn’t start off this half the way we wanted to,” Negrych said. “But we went out there and battled and hopefully this can help jumpstart something.”

NOTES: Boleska took the roster spot of RHP Rodolfo Aguirre, who was placed on the disabled list. … Kris Watts caught in place of Steve Lerud for the second straight night. The coaches wanted to give Lerud a few days off from behind the plate and timed it so that stretch would run into the all-star break. He won’t catch today either.