Hillcats top Kinston

By David Williams
Published in Sports on April 30, 2004 2:00 PM

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KINSTON -- The Lynchburg Hillcats tagged Indians starter Brian Slocum for five runs in six innings and never trailed, scoring a 6-4 win over Kinston Thursday night in front of 1,196 fans at Grainger Stadium.

The Hillcats improved to 11-8 with the win and stayed in first place in the North Division, while Kinston fell to 14-4. Coupled with Salem's loss though, the first-place Tribe maintained it's three-and-a-half game lead on the Salem Avalanche in the South Division.

After the Indians defense turned in a pair of double plays in the first two innings to keep it scoreless, Jorge Cortes broke the tie with a three-run homer in the third to make it 3-0 in favor of the visitors. Run-scoring singles from Brad Eldred in the fifth and Manny Ravelo in the sixth pushed the margin to five runs before Kinston's Ivan Ochoa scored on an error in the sixth.

Lynchburg pushed the lead to 6-1 with a run in the eighth off Juan Lara, but Kinston made it interesting with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, Jonathan van Every lead off with a double and scored on Anthony Lunetta's two-out double to make it 6-4. Eider Torres then represented the tying run at the plate, but Lynchburg called on Shaggy Higgins out of the bullpen, and he struck out Torres on four pitches to end it.

The Indians now begin a week-long road trip, opening a three-game series with the Salem Avalanche at 7:05 p.m. Friday and a four-game series in Lynchburg on Monday evening.