Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Lynchburg's Jose de los Santos is mobbed by his teammates after hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.

With the bases loaded in the eighth, Salem shortstop Ryan Dent fields a grounder to start an inning-ending double play that kept the score tied.

Salem first baseman Anthony Rizzo loudly protests a call that enabled a Lynchburg runner to score.

LYNCHBURG -- That wasn't part of Kyle Fernandes' plan.

Everything else had worked perfectly. Exactly as he'd drawn it up, better than he could have expected.

But with the score tied and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Salem Red Sox reliever fell behind Lynchburg's No. 9 hitter, Jose de los Santos. Opting to go after de los Santos rather than put the speedster on base to cause trouble, Fernandes threw a fastball over the plate.

As soon as he connected, de los Santos knew it was gone.

"Amazing," de los Santos said.. "I was saying in my mind that if he threw a fastball I was going to swing very hard. It felt very good."

De los Santos' solo shot over the left-field wall gave the Hillcats a 5-4 victory over Salem on Tuesday night and gave Lynchburg a 2-0 lead in the Carolina League's Mills Cup championship series.

The best-of-five series now moves to Salem Memorial Ballpark. After a day off today, Game 3 is at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. If needed, Game 4 is at 6:05 p.m. Friday and Game 5 is at 6:05 p.m. Saturday.

The Hillcats won the series opener 9-2 on Monday in Lynchburg.

"We can win this thing," de los Santos said.

Salem manager Chad Epperson said his team still can too.

"Sure we're down 0-2, but it's not a huge climb to come home and win this thing," Epperson said.

"This team is resilient," Fernandes said. "In the last two weeks, it seems like every game we won, we've come back.

"The older guys are going to have to step up and lead things."

Salem took the lead twice thanks to a solo homer by Ryan Dent and a three-run shot by Chih-Hsien Chiang, only to give it back to the Hillcats both times.

Dent gave the Red Sox the lead with his homer in the third inning, and Salem starter Stephen Fife held onto it until the fifth when he gave up three runs.

Kris Watts led off the Lynchburg fifth with a double. Tony Sanchez popped out, but Watts went to third on a groundout by Matt Hague. Fife walked Alex Presley on five pitches to bring de los Santos to the plate.

De los Santos hit a dribbler back to the left side of the mound that Fife fielded himself. Fife's throw to first was high and 6-foot-3 first baseman Anthony Rizzo had to leap to catch it. De los Santos was ruled safe at first before Rizzo landed on the bag with the ball and Watts scored to tie the game at 1.

The next batter, Chase d'Arnaud, lined a two-run double into left for a 3-1 Hillcats lead.

"The throw pulled [Rizzo] off. I thought he was back down in time," Epperson said. "I understood why [Fife] was mad. He had his stuff early on. I know he was fired up after what we thought was a blown call, but he was pitching purely out of frustration. This game'll be very good development for him. He's going to play a role for the big club one day and he's going to have to learn how to deal when something doesn't go right for you."

Lynchburg starter Rudy Owens allowed just two runs in 6 ¹₃ innings, but his leadoff walk to Brad Correll ignited a Salem rally in the seventh. Owens struck out Mike Jones before giving way to reliever Noah Krol. Tim Federowicz singled to left, then Chiang hit his three-run blast over the message board in right for a 4-3 lead.

But that lead evaporated in a hail of walks delivered by reliever Jason Blackey in the bottom of the eighth. Blackey walked the first two batters. Jordy Mercer tried to sacrifice bunt, popped it up in front of the plate and still reached safely when no one was there to field it.

Epperson said he left Blackey in even with the bases loaded and no outs because "he's an experienced guy."

Blackey walked Jamie Romak on five pitches to force in the tying run.

That's when Fernandes came in to face lefty Watts, who finished third in the league with a .291 average, and Tony Sanchez, the fourth pick overall in this summer's draft.

"My first goal was to strike out the lefty, then on every pitch I threw, to keep it down. I wanted to induce the ground ball," Fernandes said.

And that's exactly what he did. Fernandes struck out Watts, and got Sanchez to hit a grounder that shortstop Dent went to his right to gobble up for the inning-ending, tie-preserving double play.

Fernandes got Matt Hague -- the No. 2 hitter in the league -- to line out to Dent and fielded Alex Presley's grounder himself for the second out.

But he fell behind de los Santos 3-1 and had to make the choice.

"I went after him how I should have," Fernandes said. "I misfired a few, but that's part of the game. Sometimes you fall behind a guy.

"If I had to do it again, I still would throw him a fastball. The last thing I thought was that he would hit a home run."

How the runs scored

Salem third: One out. Dent homered. Red Sox 1, Hillcats 0.

Lynchburg fifth: Watts doubled. Sanchez popped out. Hague grounded out, Watts to third. Presley walked. De los Santos reached on a throwing error by Fife, Watts scored, Presley to second. D'Arnaud doubled, Presley scored, de los Santos scored. Hillcats 3, Red Sox 1.

Salem seventh: Correll walked. Jones struck out. Krol relieved Owens. Federowicz singled, Correll to second. Chiang homered, Correll scored, Federowicz scored. Red Sox 4, Hillcats 3.

Lynchburg eighth: D'Arnaud walked. Harrison walked, d'Arnaud to second. Mercer reaches on a bunt single, d'Arnaud to third, Harrison to second. Romak walked, d'Arnaud scored. Red Sox 4, Hillcats 4.

Lynchburg ninth: Two out. De los Santos homered. Hillcats 5, Red Sox 4.

SALEM LYNCHBURG

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Lin cf 4 0 0 0 d'Arnaud 2b 3 1 1 2

Hee 3b 4 0 1 0 Harrison 3b 3 0 0 0

Rizzo 1b 4 0 1 0 Mercer ss 4 0 1 0

Correll rf 3 1 0 0 Romak rf 3 0 1 1

Jones dh 4 0 0 0 Watts dh 4 1 1 0

Federowicz c 4 1 1 0 Sanchez c 3 0 0 0

Chiang lf 3 1 1 3 Hague 1b 4 0 0 0

Borowiak 2b 3 0 0 0 Presley lf 3 1 0 0

Dent ss 3 1 2 1 de los Santos cf 4 2 1 1

Totals 32 4 6 4 Totals 31 5 5 4

Salem 001 000 300 -- 4

Lynchburg 000 030 011 -- 5

E -- Fife (1), Sanchez (3). DP -- Salem 1, Lynchburg 2. LOB -- Salem 2, Lynchburg 5. 2B -- Watts (1), d'Arnaud (2). HR -- Dent (1), Chiang (2), de Los Santos (1).

IP H R ER BB SO

Salem

Fife 5 3 3 0 1 3

Coello 2 0 0 0 0 2

Blackey 0 1 1 1 3 0

Fernandes L,1-1 1 2-3 1 1 1 0 1

Lynchburg

Owens 6 1-3 4 2 2 1 7

Krol 1 2-3 2 2 2 0 1

Uviedo W,1-1 1 0 0 0 0 1

HBP -- Sanchez (by Coello). Umpires -- Kline, plate; Scheurwater, 1b; Ashcraft, 2b; Dudones, 3b.

T -- 2:34. A -- 922.