Monday, July 11, 2005

W 2-1

Zebulon, NC --- Nic Ungs pitched perfect baseball into the fifth inning as Carolina split a four-game series with West Tenn, 2-1 on Monday night at Five County Stadium.

Ungs (W, 4-4), making his second start after spending over a month on the disabled list, retired the first 13 hitters before Casey McGehee grounded a single to left.  Ungs went on to complete six innings on 69 pitches, allowing just two hits and a single run on a pinch-hit home run by Matt Craig.

The Mudcats (10-8, 51-35) went ahead of Carlos Marmol (L, 1-2) with a pair of solo homers in the third from the unlikeliest of sources.  Rex Rundgren hit his first home run in nearly three years, connecting on a 1-0 pitch from Marmol, his first in 780 at-bats.  Two hitters later, Frank Moore popped a towering bomb to right field, his first with the Mudcats for a 2-0 lead. 

Luke Lockwood pitched a perfect seventh inning.  Ross Wolf permitted two hits in the eighth before Mike Flannery (S, 10) entered for the final out of the eighth, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 10th save in 11 opportunities.

The Mudcats enter a three-day all-star break beginning Tuesday.  Yorman Bazardo (6-6, 3.84) will open a week-long road trip in Huntsville Friday night.  After three against the Stars, Carolina will head to Chattanooga for four.

WEST TENN        0 0 0   0 0 1   0 0 0   ---   1   4   0   3

CAROLINA          0 0 2   0 0 0   0 0 x   ----   2   7   0   5

WP - Ungs (4-4)

LP - Marmol (1-2)

S - Flannery (10)

HR - Rundgren (1), Moore (1), Craig (9)

Time:  2:13

Att:  5,658

Notes:   Rundgren's last home run came on July 25th, 2002 as a member of the Kane County Cougars in the Midwest League against the Wisconsin TimberRattlers at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.... Moore, batting leadoff, has four extra base hits in his last two games, including triples on Sunday and Monday night...  CF Reggie Abercrombie made a wall-shaking catch on a Micah Hoffpauir drive to left-center, leaping into the wall leading with his right shoulder, at the time preserving Ungs' perfect game bid.  Abercrombie was picked off of first base for the second straight game...  Carolina's chief four closers of 2005:  Chris Resop, Mike Flannery, Jerrod Fuell and Kevin Cave are a combined 33 of 37 in saves this season, an 89% success rate.... Ungs has now won his last three decisions, with an ERA of 0.67 covering his last five starts (26.2IP, 2ER).