Tuesday, August 9, 2005

W 5-4

Zebulon, NC --- Frank Moore bunted home Drew Niles with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs as Carolina defeated West Tenn 5-4 at Five County Stadium on Tuesday night.

The game-winning rally started on a single by Niles, who was sacrificed to second by Chris Bass.  Dennis Anderson grounded out, moving Niles to third ahead of Moore, who on an 0-1 pitch, bunted high down the third base line, barehanded by Victor Ramos (L, 1-1), who threw low to first as Niles crossed the plate for the win.

Carolina (27-15, 68-42) pushed its Northern Division lead back to two games ahead of the final regular season meeting between the clubs on Wednesday night.  The win was the Mudcats' fourth in five games on their homestand, all coming in their last at-bat.

The Mudcats trailed 3-0 into the bottom of the eighth after being stymied by Jae Kuk-Ryu all night.  Carolina started its rally on a pinch-single by Anderson with one out.  After Moore grounded out, Robert Andino doubled in Anderson to make it 3-1.  Ryu was relieved by Thomas Atlee, who surrendered a single to Jeremy Hermida, pushing Andino to third.  Jason Hill doubled against the left-centerfield wall to tie the game.  Reggie Abercrombie tapped an 0-1 pitch to third baseman Casey McGhee, who threw it wildly past first as Hill scored for a 4-3 lead. 

Chris Resop (W, 3-1), who had blown just one of 21 save chances this season, allowed West Tenn (26-18, 70-43) to tie the game after walking pinch-hitter Matt Creighton.  After failing to sacrifice on two pitches, Dwaine Bacon rifled a 3-2 pitch into the right field corner for a double.  Ryan Theriot then hit a game-tying sacrifice fly to center.  Bacon was stranded at thidd as McGhee and Matt Craig struck out.

Nic Ungs started for the Mudcats 10 days after no-hitting the Diamond Jaxx.  Ungs allowed three runs on 10 hits over his five innings.  Pat Flury recorded two outs in the sixth, then was forced out of the game with an undisclosed injury after making one pitch to Bacon.  Matt Overman relieved for the second game in a row, fanning Bacon to end the inning.  Mike McNutt pitched two scoreless innings ahead of Resop's ninth.

Ryu carried a two-hit shutout into the eighth inning, finishing the game working 7 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, fanning five.

Luke Lockwood (2-5, 3.40) puts his 20-inning scoreless streak on the line in the series finale against Southern League ERA leader Reynel Pinto (8-2, 2.15) at 7:15 PM ET Wednesday night.

WEST TENN            0 0 1   1 1 0   0 0 1   ---   4   12   2   9

CAROLINA               0 0 0   0 0 0   0 4 1   ---   5    8   0    6

WP - Resop (3-1)

LP - Ramos (1-1)

S - None.

HR -- None.

Time:  3:02

Att:  3,449