LYNCHBURG, Va. – It was this time last week that the Hillcats secured their spot in the playoffs after beating Del Marva for the first half North Division title. But it wasn’t so easy... The title ended up coming down to a tie breaker with their Route 460 rival. Salem and Lynchburg had the same exact record after the first half, but the Hillcats won 8 games in their head to head series, while the Red Sox had only won 7.
Lynchburg won the tie break and the title, and proved that even in a long season filled with over 100 games, every single one matters.
“It’s always good, whenever you play a team that’s a little better, and more of a rival, you always step your game up a little bit,” Pitcher Jack Leftwich said. “We’ve been playing them pretty well this year and they’re one of the better teams in the league, so it’s nice to face competition like that.”
“I absolutely love it because it makes these games a lot more intense at the beginning of the year,” Catcher Joe Donovan added. “You got people in the stands, they know the stakes, it just kind of makes it a lot more fun because you have a long season like this, you have a lot of times where you go to the field at the same time every day, do the same thing every day, it can get a little monotonous at some points, so to have that pie in the sky so close to you in the first half of the season, it’s a lot of fun.”