May 14, 2004

Sevierville, TN - John Nelson homered twice while Brad Thompson tied Southern League history as the Tennessee Smokies drubbed the Carolina Mudcats 10-0 on Friday night at Smokies Park.

Nelson homered on first pitches from Peter Bauer (L, 3-2, 4+IP, 10H, 8R, 8ER, 0W, 2K) in the second and Jerrod Fuell (ND, 1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0W, 0K) in the seventh to pirate the offense. Nelson finished 4-4 with a double and three RBI.

The real story was Thompson (W, 6-0), who began the outing on a 46-inning skein of scoreless baseball dating to the finish of 2003. Thompson wriggled from trouble in the first two innings, stranding the bases loaded in the first after Josh Willingham (0-3, HBP) bounced out on a 3-2 pitch. In the second inning, Thompson necessitated a 6-3 double play off the bat of speedy Eric Reed with runners at first and third and just one out.

Beyond those two innings, the last trouble standing between Thompson and tying league history occurred with two outs in the sixth. Willingham was hit by a pitch ahead of Matt Demarco, who smoked a liner off of Thompson's ankle, deflecting away for an infield single. After the trainer examined Thompson, and three warm-up pitches were allotted, Thompson gustily continued. Billy Hall (0-4) grounded wide of first, and Thompson hobbled to the bag to cover the throw and ending his league-tying effort at 42 1/3 scoreless innings, and 52 innings overall. The league-tying effort matches the record established by Mudcat Bobby Hunter in 1993.

Bauer allowed five runs in the Smokies third inning, capped by a three-run triple by former Mudcat Javier Colina.

The just-discovered minor league all-time record is 56 innings set in 1907 by Irvin Wilhelm of Birmingham.

Carolina (20-15) has lost two straight after winning seven in a row, and fell one-game behind first-place Jacksonville in the Eastern Division. Tennessee (18-17) moved into a third place tie, three games behind.

The series continues Saturday night with Trevor Hutchinson (5-1, 3.38) starting against Tennessee RH Josh Axelson (1-4, 7.02) at 7:15 PM ET.

Carolina 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --- 0 4 0 11
Tennessee 0 1 5 0 2 0 1 1 x --- 10 14 1 5

WP - Thompson (6-0)
LP - Bauer (3-2)
S - None.

HR - Nelson 2 (4, 5)

Time: 2:41
Att: 5,506