Lynchburg Hillcats show off in front of home crowd, defeat Pelicans 13-4

Minor League Baseball is officially underway in the Hill City as the Lynchburg Hillcats opened up their first home game of the year against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. 

The Hillcats entered their home opener off of a three-game series at Fredericksburg. This drew 2,500 fans from all over the community who came out to City Stadium to watch the Hillcats play. 

Neither team broke the score until the bottom of the third inning. With bases loaded, Hillcats player Manuel Mejias was walked, allowing Juan Benjamin to score. Wuilfredo Antunez would later score. With bases loaded once again, Hillcats infielder Jose Devers roped a line drive double, sending Guy Lipscomb, Manuel Mejias and Marc Filia to home plate to make the score 5-0. Another run came Lynchburg’s way when Nate Furman singled to right field to send Jose Devers home, extending the Hillcats lead to 6-0.

Lynchburg switched out pitchers going to the top of the sixth inning as Miguel Vinicio replaced Braunny Munoz. Munoz had a stellar opening night on the mound, pitching five innings and allowing no hits in that span. 

In the top of the sixth, with Myrtle Beach at bat and Christian Hernandez on base, Christian Franklin tripled to right field, bringing Hernandez home to put the Pelicans on the board. Pedro Ramirez would send Franklin home with a sacrifice fly to left field. Moises Ballesteros kept the party going, blasting a home run to right center field to cut the Hillcats lead in half, 6-3.

Lynchburg, however, had no intention of letting the Pelicans spoil its opening day festivities. In the bottom of the sixth, Antunez sailed a double to right field that brought Fuman in to score. Mejias then singled to center field to send Benjamin home. Next, Lexer Daduy reached first base on a fielder’s choice, sending Antunez home to extend the lead 9-3 in favor of Lynchburg.

In the top of the seventh inning, Pelicans Christian Hernandez knocked the ball over the wall for a home run to cut the Lynchburg lead slightly, 9-4. Then in the bottom of the seventh, with bases loaded, Hillcats outfielder Guy Lipscomb hit a triple that not only sent Furman, Benjamin and Antunez home to score, but also sent the Hillcats faithful into a frenzy. Later in the inning, Lipscomb would eventually score on a ground out from Mejias to further the Lynchurg lead to 13-4.

Pedri Ramirez would score for Myrtle Beach in the eighth on a single from Pelicans player Reivaj Garcia. That would be the last score from either side as the Lynchburg Hillcats defeated the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 13-5. Munoz acquired his first victory of the season, and the Hillcats moved to .500 on the young season.

 “The crowd was awesome,” Lipscomb said. “If it’s like that every night, (then) we will have a really fun summer.”

The Pelicans would take the next game with a 7-4 victory before the Hillcats responded with an 11-3 rout of Myrtle Beach to close out the series. The Hillcats will now hit the road to take on the Salem Red Sox in a Carolina League matchup.

Hughes is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on Twitter