April 17, 2004
Zebulon, NC - Arnie Munoz tossed six scoreless innings while Aaron McNeal homered and drove in two runs as Birmingham beat Carolina for the second straight game 6-3 at Five County Stadium on Saturday night.
Munoz (W, 2-0), extended his season-opening scoreless streak to 12 innings by blanking the Mudcats (5-4) on three hits over his tenure.
Birmingham (5-3) established a 1-0 lead in the third with an unearned run against Ronald Belizario (L, 0-2). A Jason Stokes (1-4, K) error at first base started the inning, followed by an RBI-double by Ruddy Yan.
In the fourth, Carolina mounted a chance against Munoz, filling the bases with one out. Stokes was picked off of first base on a timing play between Munoz and McNeal. Joe Dillon (0-3, W) flew out into the right field corner to end the inning.
The Barons knocked Belizario (L, 4.2IP, 4H, 4R, 3ER, 3W, 3K) out in the fifth inning on a two-run triple by Nate Murphy and an infield grounder by Yan. Belizario allowed four runs, three earned in his 4 2/3 inning start.
After a McNeal solo homer in the eight moved the Barons' lead to 5-0, Eric Reed hit a three-run blast to right drawing Carolina to 5-3. The runs were Carolina's first of the series against Birmingham, which two-hit the Mudcats on Friday night in a 4-0 win.
With the loss, the Mudcats fell three games behind first-place Jacksonville in the East.
Peter Bauer (1-0, 0.00) starts the series finale Sunday afternoon against Tetsu Yofo (1-0, 0.00) at 2:00 PM ET.
BIRMINGHAM 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 1 --- 6 9 1 8
CAROLINA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 --- 3 5 1 4
HR -- McNeal (3), Reed (2)
Notes: Reed's homer in the eighth marked his second of the season, and second of his career. Reed's career began homerless in 819 at-bats before hitting his first of the season April 9th... Pete Hartmann entered in relief of Belizario in the fifth, stranding two baserunners. The left-hander has fanned 10 of the last 19 batters he has faced... Carolina is hitting .119 in the series against the Barons (7-59).
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