Bats Come Alive as Hillcats Shutout Nationals

The Lynchburg Hillcats had their bats come alive in their 9-0 shutout of the Fredericksburg Nationals.

The Hillcats (21-26) picked up their second shutout of the series against the Nationals (28-18) after shutting them out on Thursday night.

Will Dion pitched another magnificent outing, picking up another seven innings of shutout baseball. He picked up seven strikeouts along the way before passing the ball off to the bullpen to finish the deal.

The Hillcats did most of their damage in the fourth inning, putting up seven runs off three different pitchers. Junior Sanquintin scored off a throwing error by J.T. Arruda. Richard Paz would double home Carson Tucker to give the Hillcats a 2-0 lead.

One batter later Cesar Idrogo would drive home two more runs with one of his three doubles of the night. Yordys Valdes would drive home Idrogo with a single. All of this occurred before the first out of the inning with a Jake Fox fielder’s choice.

Fox would score on an Isaiah Greene triple. For Greene, he now moves into a tie for fourth all-time with eight triples for the Hillcats. Jorge Burgos would drive Greene home to close out the seven-run inning with a double.

The game would trade zeros until the bottom of the eighth when Yordys Valdes would crush a two-run home run over the right field wall. That would cap off the scoring for the Hillcats before Sammy Vasquez closed the door to hold onto the shutout.

The Hillcats have now guaranteed themselves a series split with the Nationals and a plus-.500 record over the last three series against potential playoff teams.

Lynchburg and Fredericksburg will square off one final time on Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. at Bank of the James Stadium.