Monday, July 4, 2005

L 5-3

Zebulon, NC --- In front of 8,399 fans at Five County, Chattanooga's Jeff Bannon homered twice and drove in all five Lookouts runs as Chattanooga downed the Carolina Mudcats on Independence Day 5-3 Monday night.

Bannon hit a tie-breaking homer in the ninth against Luke Lockwood (L, 2-4) after sacrifice bunting foul twice.  Bannon tied the game 3-3 in the fourth off of starter Ray Aguilar thanks to a three-run homer after bunting foul once for a sacrifice.

Carolina (47-32, 6-5) took a 3-0 lead on Jason Hill's second homer in two days, a three-run shot against Lookouts starter Phil Dumatrait in the third inning.

Aguilar tied Carolina's longest start of the season, working eight innings, permitting three hits and two earned runs with two strikeouts.  Lockwood, Wednesday night's scheduled starter, yielded four hits in the ninth to absorb the loss.

Brad Salmon (W, 2-6) relieved Dumatrait to earn the win with a scoreless eighth.  David Shafer (S, 3) registered the save with a three-strikeout ninth. 

The crowd was the 7th largest in Mudcats history.  Of the top 12-ever crowds, eight have occurred on the Fourth of July.

The series continues Tuesday night with RHP Nic Ungs making the start, his first since June 3rd against Ben Kozlowski at 7:15 PM ET.

CHATTANOOGA            0 0 0   3 0 0   0 0 2   ---   5   7   0   3

CAROLINA                    0 0 3   0 0 0   0 0 0   ---   3   7   2   6

WP - Salmon (2-6)

LP - Lockwood (2-4)

S - Shafer (3)

HR - Hill (12), Bannon (12, 13)

Time:  2:23

Att:  8,399