It’s the annual “Say No to Drugs” day at City Stadium, which means throngs of screaming elementary and middle school children will soon be lining the concourse. I, of course, will be hiding in the press box.

No batting practice for this rare morning game. The Cats will actually play in four of these games throughout the season—at Kinston (11 a.m., April 28), at Myrtle Beach (10:35 a.m., May 26), and at Potomac (12:05 p.m., August 10).

Mercifully, the teams played a tidy game of just a shade over two hours last night, so we weren’t stuck at the stadium until midnight only to have to turn around and get back nine hours later. I have a cup of rather overpriced 7-11 coffee in front of me though, so I’ll survive. It’s cloudy and cool outside, but there isn’t much on the radar. I wouldn’t expect more than a passing shower.

On to the lineups:
SALEM (4-1)

Peter Hissey cf (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB)

Alex Hassan lf (.222, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB)

Anthony Rizzo dh (.227, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB)

Ryan Lavarnway c (.353, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Will Middlebrooks 3b (.357, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Mitch Dening rf (.182, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB)

Will Vazquez 2b (.250, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB)

Drew Hedman 1b (.308, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Jon Hee ss (.083, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Brock Huntzinger RHP (0-0, 1.93 ERA)

LYNCHBURG (2-3)

Josh Fellhauer rf (.250, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Cody Puckett 2b (.154, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB)

Neftali Soto c (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Carlos Mendez 1b (.353, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 SB)

Alex Buchholz ss (.263, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 SB)

Devin Mesoraco dh (.364, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB)

Dave Sappelt cf (.235, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 SB)

Kyle Day lf (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Jose Gualdron 3b (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB)

LHP Matt Fairel (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

* Salem’s Alex Hassan was in the lineup until the last minute Tuesday before being replaced by David Mailman in left field. What happened? Hassan apparently managed to get a splinter from the bench in the visitor’s dugout lodged in his derriere, and when the training staff went to remove it, the wound had to be closed with stitches. File this under injuries that only happen in baseball.

* No Miguel Rojas again today for Lynchburg, which is to be expected. If his knee was too sore to play on Tuesday night, rushing him out there 12 hours later wouldn’t be a smart plan. Alex Buchholz gets another start at short for the Hillcats.

* Dave Sappelt has batted leadoff in all five games thus far, but with the Hillcats’ offense sputtering, manager Pat Kelly dropped him to seventh in the order today. Josh Fellhauer, who has a .333 on-base percentage, moves into the leadoff role for this morning’s tilt. Also, Neftali Soto gets his first look at catcher, with Devin Mesoraco taking a day-game-after-a-night-game turn at DH.

AROUND THE ORGANIZATION
Tuesday’s scores
MLB—Cincinnati 10, Florida 8 (12)
Jonny Gomes drives in four runs and Brandon Phillips has four hits for the Reds, who win on Joey Votto’s two-run single in the 12th.

AAA—Columbus (Indians) 4, Louisville (Reds) 3 (10)
Daniel Dorn homers for the second straight game for the Bats, but the Clippers win on Chris Gimenez’s walk-off homer in the 10th.

AA—Carolina was off
(Note: The Southern League is weird. They’re playing nothing but five-game series there this year.)

HiA—Salem (Red Sox) 2, Lynchburg (Reds) 1
The Hillcats’ offense continues to struggle, wasting a strong start from Lance Janke.

LoA—Bowling Green (Rays) 3, Dayton (Reds) 1
(Apparently, I goofed here yesterday afternoon and posted this as the score from Monday. This game must have been played yesterday afternoon. Dayton won the Monday game 7-4. Apologies.)

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Moving on ...

One of the more frustrating parts of the Pirates’ move out of town at the end of last season was that I felt I had a pretty good grasp of the entire Pittsburgh organization. But alas, that knowledge is useless now. But, hey, this gives me an opportunity to learn another organization from top-to-bottom, the Cincinnati Reds, which is why I’m providing organizational updates on a daily basis. For Hillcats fans, the teams to watch are Double-A Carolina and Low-A Dayton, since Carolina is the likely destination of any really successful players and Dayton will be the source of new players. Today, we’ll start learning this organization together by taking a position-by-position look at the Reds, starting at catcher.

First, let’s look at the Reds’ major-league options at the position:
—Ramon Hernandez—33 years old, $3.86 million per year. An aging career .262 hitter with average power, Hernandez is really just a placeholder at the position until a young talent develops in the minors. He came to Cincinnati in a trade with Baltimore for Ryan Freel and missed 81 games last season with an injury.

—Ryan Hanigan—29 years old, $415K per year. Hanigan has hit .272 with 6 HR in 130 big-league games and pretty much profiles as a career backup. He played 90 games last season and hit .263. He walks more than he strikes out, so he’s got that going for him.

Now, the rankings of the Reds’ minor-league catchers, according to Baseball America’s prospect handbook:

1. Devin Mesoraco, Lynchburg. Mesoraco is probably the Hillcats’ most important prospect, at least as far as the Reds are concerned. Catcher is clearly a major area of need at the big-league level, and Mesoraco, a first-round draft pick in 2007, spent much of last season working on the defensive intracacies of the position. His offense suffered because of it, so this becomes a huge year for Mesoraco, who needs to show he can put it all together. One thing Mesoraco has shown early in the season is great plate discipline, which is key to raising a batting average that has slumped in the last couple of seasons. Mesoraco will benefit greatly by playing Lynchburg, where manager Pat Kelly is also the Reds’ minor league catching coordinator.

2. Kevin Coddington, Dayton. Coddington was a 44th-round round pick in the 2008 draft out of Illinois-Chicago and will likely stay a stop behind Mesoraco throughout his career. He hit .278 with two homers and 23 doubles in 99 games for the Dragons last season, and he won’t move up until Mesoraco does, because the Reds want him to get everyday playing time.

3. Mark Fleury, Dayton. A fourth-round pick out of North Carolina last season, Fleury began his career last summer in the Pioneer League, where he hit .198 with four home runs and 17 RBIs in 39 games with the Billings Mustangs. He’s hitless in 14 at-bats this season with the Dragons. It’s clear Fleury will go nowhere unless he learns how to handle the lumber.

4. Tucker Barnhart, AZL Reds. A 10th-round pick out of Brownsburg (Ind.) High School in 2009, Barnhart is in extended spring training right now and will either play in Goodyear in the Arizona League this year or head up to Billings to play for the Mustangs in the Pioneer League. He hit .208 in 48 at-bats last summer in the Gulf Coast League. Young kid who will be given plenty of time to develop. But I’d assume the drafting of two catchers last year would be enough to put Mesoraco on notice.

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As promised, a couple of Liberty notes:

* The spring signing period for basketball begins today, and it’s possible that a couple of letters could make their way to coach Dale Layer’s office at some point during the day. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

* The Flames’ baseball team was red hot, having won eight of nine, before losing 5-3 to Elon Tuesday on a weird, windy day at Worthington Stadium. Huge series this weekend coming up at Worthington, as Liberty hosts VMI in a crucial three-game set beginning Friday night. The Keydets are ranked as high in 26th nationally in some baseball polls (and there are at least six of them, so believe whichever one you want to). Liberty fancied itself an at-large NCAA regional contender before the season but has struggled out of conference, meaning the Flames will likely need to win the Big South regular season title to get a shot at an at-large. Liberty does get to the two top teams in the league (VMI and Coastal) at home, so that’s not out of the question.

The Keydets host No. 1 Virginia today before heading down here for the three-game set. Should be a great pitching matchup Friday with Liberty throwing Shawn Teufel (6-1, 1.86) against VMI’s Adam Lopez (5-0, 3.32). I’ll be out there for the Friday game, and one of our correspondents, Jake Petersen, will be out there Saturday and Sunday.

* Spring football practice wraps up Saturday with the annual spring game at Williams Stadium at 1 p.m. Note to those attending: Only the East stands will be open (the student side) as the press box construction continues on the other side of the stadium. I’ll have a short preview of the day for Saturday’s News & Advance, plus full coverage of the game itself in Sunday’s paper.