Hillcats blast team-record six long balls in win

Class A Advanced Lynchburg had hit the second-fewest home runs in the Carolina League this season, but one never would've known after watching them Saturday.
The Cleveland affiliate clubbed a team-record six long balls in a 12-5 win over Frederick at Nymeo Field. The teams combined for 10 roundtrippers -- one shy of the league record set April 18, 1988 by Durham and Salem.

Jodd Carter got things started for the Hillcats with a three-run shot to left in the second inning. Lynchburg's bats went quiet for the next three innings while Alex Murphy and Ademar Rifaela answered for the Keys with blasts in the second and third, respectively.
Gameday box score
The Hillcats responded with back-to-back-to-back jacks off reliever Mitch Horacek in the sixth. Ka'ai Tom began the deluge with a three-run, opposite-field dinger over the left-center field wall. Sicnarf Loopstok followed by crushing one to left and Martin Cervenka completed the hat trick with an opposite-field shot to right-center.
"Ka'ai has worked hard to get his focus back to driving the ball to the opposite side of the field," hitting coach Kevin Howard said. "I think he got in modes where he was trying to pull the ball too much and got back on his heels. He's worked hard to get his focus toward that way, and he has some power that way when he gets in a groove.
"Cervenka, that's kind of his strength anyway, going to the opposite field. Loopstok had the right approach for the right time and the right pitch. He was looking for a fastball in that he could pull and he got it early in the count. All three really different, but each with appropriate approaches for the time."
Yonathan Mendoza added another homer in the same frame, and Carter belted his second of the game in the seventh to complete the historic night. Five of the Hillcats' blasts came on the first or second pitch. 
"That's something I think is important as a hitting coach -- getting a pitch you can drive early in the count," Howard said. "We don't really have the type of guys who can drive the ball with two strikes and still have an approach that's going to allow them to have a good at-bat, but we do have gap-to-gap line drive hitters where early in the count is where they're going to do their damage."
Austin Hays and Rifaela went deep for the Keys in the eighth.

Lynchburg entered the game with 45 homers, just two more than Buies Creek in the 10-team league. Howard couldn't explain Saturday's outburst.
"That's kind of how baseball is," the coach said. "Sometimes a bunch of things align in a row and you have games like that. I know we have a bunch of hard workers on our team and they do a lot to try and get better as individual players. We just had guys that got in a groove at the right time."
Indians No. 20 prospectAaron Civale (3-1) gave up three runs on six hits while fanning eight over seven frames to get the win.
Brian Gonzalez (2-5), the Orioles' No. 19 prospect, yielded four unearned runs on six hits while walking three and striking out three over three innings for Frederick.