Greenville, SC - Jason Stokes, Joe Dillon and Josh Wilson homered for Carolina as the Mudcats earned their second straight one-run win over Greenville 6-5 on Thursday night at Municipal Stadium.

Stokes (HR, 5, 2-3, 2B, RBI, W) and Dillon (HR, 7, 2-4, 2R, 3RBI) each homered against first-time Double-A starter Matt Merricks within the first three innings, then Wilson took reliever Brett Evert deep down the left field line in the eighth as Carolina moved to within four of the East-leading Jacksonville Suns.

Trevor Hutchinson (W, 4-1, 6IP, 9H, 3R, 3ER, 2W, 7K) became the Southern League's first four-game winner by tossing six innings of three-run baseball. Hutchinson fanned seven, allowing two runs in the Braves fifth and one more in the sixth.

Carolina (11-10) was outhit by the Braves (5-16) 15-7, and fanned 14 times in the victory.

Leading 6-4 in the ninth, closer Kevin Cave (S, 4, 1IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0W, 0K) allowed three hits and a run, but induced a hard liner to left field off the bat of Juan Velazquez with two runners aboard to seal the victory.

Nic Ungs (0-1, 3.86) starts the roadtrip finale Friday night against Greenville lefty Dan Meyer (1-0, 0.00) at 7:15 PM ET. Carolina is 3-4 on their current trip, and begins an eight-game, nine-day homestand Saturday night at Five County Stadium against the 11-10 Mobile BayBears.

Carolina 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 1 0 --- 6 7 1 3
Greenville 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 --- 5 15 1 11

WP - Hutchinson (4-1)
LP - Merricks (0-1)
S - Cave (4)

HR: Stokes (5), Dillon (7), Johnson (4), Wilson (2)
Time: 2:52
Att: 1,451

Notes: Cave earned his fourth save in six chances for the Mudcats two days after blowing a 8-7 lead in the series opener. Brian Gaal notched his first save since August 17, 2003 while pitching for Mobile in Wednesday's 4-3 win... Eric Reed extended his hitting streak to nine games with a fifth inning single... Joe Dillon improved his hitting streak to seven games, going 2-3 with his league-tying seventh homer, and now paces the league with 22 RBI... Stokes' homer in the second inning was Carolina's first in nearly nine games. The Mudcats went 262 at-bats between homers... Former Mudcat Franklyn Gracesqui, called to the major leagues after Wednesday's Marlins win in Colorado, made his debut for the Marlins in San Francisco Thursday afternoon, earning a save. Gracesqui entered in the last of the ninth protecting a one-run lead, with the tying run at third and two outs. Gracesqui struck out Michael Tucker to end the game. Gracesqui is the third Mudcat to make his big-league debut in 2004, joining Adrian Gonzalez (Texas), Matt Holliday (Colorado) and Justin Huisman (Kansas City). Ryan Snare was called to the Texas Rangers last week, but sent back to Triple-A Oklahoma without making his debut... Hutchinson, who defeated the Braves on Thursday night, pitched for the first time against the Braves in his career, but his last name is familiar to Braves fans. In 1995, Atlanta selected Trevor's older brother, Chad, with their first selection in the draft out of Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, but Chad did not sign, and went on to star as a quarterback for the Stanford Cardinal. Chad later was selected in the draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, quickly reaching the major leagues before giving up the game to pursue an NFL career. He now backs up another former minor league baseball player - Quincy Carter - who is the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Chad is spending this summer in the World League of American Football in Europe.

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