June 28, 2004

Jacksonville, FL - A seven-run outburst in the Carolina sixth inning propelled the Mudcats to their second straight victory, 8-5 over the Jacksonville Suns at the Baseball Grounds on Monday afternooon.

Josh Wilson and Jeff Inglin hit consecutive home runs to cap the inning which was sparked with two doubles, an infield single, an error on a sacrifice bunt and two walks. Wilson's shot came off of a 0-1 curveball from losing pitcher Brian Steffek (L, 2-3), easily clearing the left field wall. Inglin followed two pitches later cranking a pitch inside the left field foul pole.

Inglin's home run was particularly comforting after Ingling helped a flyball by Reggie Abercrombie in the bottom of the fifth inning over the wall for a home run. The drive, which pressed Inglin against the wall, hit off of the heel of Inglin's glove and deflected over the short wall. Abercrombie's dinger followed up a solo homer to right by Shane Victorino, which snapped a 1-1 tie against Ronald Belizario.

The Suns (2-4) scored a second inning run against Belizario by strining three one-out singles. Sergio Garcia hit an off-side single to right to score Nick Alvarez for a 1-0 lead.

Carolina (2-4) tied the game in the fourth when Matt Demarco grounded a double over third base to bring home Chip Ambres, who had walked with two outs.

Mike Flannery (W, 1-0) earned the win by retiring his only batter to end the fifth inning, stranding two baserunners.

Pat Flury (S, 1) notched his first save by relieving Brian Strelitz in the ninth after two Suns runs had scored.

Carolina moved into a third place tie with the victory, and closes out its seven-game road trip to begin the second half on Tuesday night at 7:05 PM ET.

Bill Murphy (6-3) starts against Suns RH Dimas Reina (1-3).

Carolina 0 0 0 1 0 7 0 0 0 --- 8 9 0 8
Jacksonville 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 --- 5 13 3 7

WP - Flannery (1-0)
LP - Steffek (2-3)
S - Flury (1)

HR - Victorino (6), Abercrombie (4), WIlson (10), Inglin (2)

Time: 3:00
Att: 4,701

Notes: Prior to Monday's game, the Mudcats learned former teammate Chris Aguila was on his way to Atlanta, summoned to the major leagues by the Florida Marlins. Aguila was in uniform for the series opener at Turner Field against the Braves. Aguila won the Southern League batting title on the final day of the 2003 season.... RHP Pat Flury saved Monday's win, the 72nd of his career, but his first since he played with Nippon in the Japanese League in 2002... 2B Matt Demarco collected three more hits on Monday, lifting his average to .311. Demarco is eight for his last 12... Chip Ambres saw his string of five consecutive hits snapped during his first at-bat on Monday, lining out to right field.