Wednesday, June 15, 2005

L 5-4

Zebulon, NC --- The Carolina Mudcats chose the most inopportune timing to lose six straight, falling 5-4 to Jacksonville Wednesday night, and missing a chance to pull to within one game of first-place West Tenn with four days left in the first half. 

The Mudcats (40-24) trailed the Suns (37-29) by two runs twice, but rallied to tie on a Jason Hill homer in the fourth and two runs in the sixth, but could not nose ahead.

Nick Alvarez singled in the tie-breaking run in the seventh against Mike Flannery (L, 1-1) for a 5-4 lead, and Jacksonville would stiffarm the Mudcats two games in back of West Tenn with four to play in the Northern Division.

Carolina closes out the first half in Sevierville, TN Thursday through Sunday against the Tennessee Smokies, who have won seven straight.  Josh Johnson (6-2, 2.56), the league leader in ERA starts the opener at 7:15 PM ET.

JACKSONVILLE            1 0 1   0 1 1   1 0 0   ---   5   8   0   7

CAROLINA                    0 0 0   2 0 2   0 0 0   ---   4   6   1   5

WP - Bartlett (1-1)

LP - Flannery (1-1)

S - Gonzalez (3)

HR - Hill (10), Weber (8)

Time:  2:48

Att:  2,438