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Sports

Lynchburg Sprints Past Potomac Nationals, 10-5

The Lynchburg Hillcats beat the Potomac Nationals in first of two games on Saturday afternoon.

The Lynchburg Hillcats scored four runs in each of the first two innings and never looked back against the Potomac Nationals, and beat them 10-5 in the first game of a .

Trevor Holder started the game for the Nationals, but lasted just one and two-thirds innings. He gave up nine hits and eight runs, including one walk and a home run, and committed an error.

The first two hits he surrendered were balls hit just out of the reach of his defenders, but the rest were smoked line drives. He struggled with his command, and the Hillcats wasted no time in taking advantage of his mistakes.

“He didn’t really look comfortable to me from the beginning,” LeCroy said. “He’s been really, really good for four starts. Hated that this happened tonight, but he’ll bounce back.”

Designated hitter Adam Milligan drove in Lynchburg’s first two runs with a one-out bases-clearing double. He finished two for four with four RBI.

The hits kept coming for the Hillcats in the first inning, as Sean McGill drove Milligan and Joseph Terdoslavich in with one out. Keenan Wiley mercifully grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Lynchburg starting pitcher Zeke Spruil threw a complete game, and was unhittable through four innings. Even when Potomac did score five runs on him in the fifth inning, the damage had been done.

J.P. Ramirez broke up Spruil’s no-hitter with a one-out single in the fifth. The Nationals then ripped off three more hits in a row, and J.R. Higgley’s double scored Ramirez to put the Nationals on the board for the first time.

The Nationals cut the deficit to three, only to see it swell back up to five as Adam Milligan crushed a two-run homer in the next inning.

“We got back into the ballgame and scored five,” LeCroy said. “Then we go and give up two runs. To me that’s not fight. I think you need to have a shut down inning and get our offense back out there, and see what happens.”

Adam Olbrychowski provided three and one-third innings of scoreless relief for Potomac, who have now five games in a row, including four of them at home. The loss puts them a half game behind the Hillcats in the Carolina League North division.

Daniel Weaver came on to finish the final two innings of the game and surrendered four hits, including the two-run home run to Adam Milligan in the sixth inning.

The Hillcats outhit the Nationals 14-6. Five Hillcats recorded at least two hits, while the Nationals had no such batters.

The game did break one dubious streak for the Nationals. They had committed multiple errors in each of their past seven games. They only committed one error in this game – a throwing error charged to Holder.

The games were shortened from nine innings to seven because of the double header.

The two teams played again Saturday night to make up a rainout from the first game of the season. They will also play a double-header Sunday afternoon at 12:05 to make up for a game postponed on Friday because of a tornado warning and strong rain.

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