May 18, 2004

Zebulon, NC - Jeff Bannon hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the Chattanooga Lookouts to a 4-3 win over the Carolina Mudcats at Five County Stadium on Tuesday night.

Bannon, who came to the plate 0-3 in the game, drilled the first pitch from Kevin Cave (L, 0-4, 1ip, 2h, 2r, 2er, 0w, 0k) over the left field wall as the Lookouts (21-18) moved into a second-place tie with Carolina. Kenny Kelly opened the last-inning rally with a single.

The Mudcats (21-18) remained one-game behind the Jacksonville Suns, who lost in Mobile on Tuesday night.

Chattanooga scored twice in the second inning against Ronald Belizario (ND, 6ip, 5h, 2r, 2er, 1w, 4k) on a homer by Kelly and successive doubles by Ramon Moreta and Brian Peterson.

The Mudcats tied the game in the fourth with two runs coming in on a double to left-center by Pat Magness (1-4, r, 2b, rbi, k) and a chop-single to left by Bill Hall (1-4, rbi, cs).

Eric Reed (HR, 3, 1-4, r, rbi) homered in the seventh for a 3-2 Carolina lead.

Randy Messenger (ND, 2ip, 1h, 0r, 0w, 3k) pitched two scoreless innings before Cave entered in the ninth.

Carolina sends Peter Bauer (3-2, 4.50) against Lookouts RH Steve Kelly (3-2, 2.25) Wednesday night at 7:15 PM ET.

Chattanooga 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 --- 4 8 0 5
Carolina 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 --- 3 9 0 6

WP - Salmon (1-0)
LP - Cave (0-4)
S - Shearn (2)

HR - Kelly (4), Bannon (2), Reed (3)

Time: 2:34
Att: 3,216

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