Thursday, June 23, 2005

W 5-3

Zebulon, NC --- Carolina's Jason Vargas pitched seven innings in his Double-A debut to earn a 5-3 victory over the Mississippi Braves before 5,893 at Five County Stadium.

Vargas (W, 1-0), who is pitching with his third Florida affiliate this season, allowed three runs on two homers, but benefited from timely pitches and stellar defense as the Mudcats (3-0) became the only Southern League team still unbeaten in the second half three games in.

The Mudcats swiped four bases in the first five innings, including a joint steal of second and home in the first inning by Robert Andino and Eric Reed as Carolina assumed a 1-0 lead.

Vargas fell behind 2-1 in the second on a two-out, two-run homer to Onil Joseph, but the Mudcats offense bruised Matt Wright (L, 5-7) for a pair of runs in the bottom of the second to reclaim the lead 3-2.  Frank Moore singled home Chris Bass, who had doubled to begin the inning.  After a Vargas sacrifice, Reed pulled a single to right for a one run lead.

The Mudcats stretched to a 5-2 lead after six innings.  Jason Hill singled in Jeremy Hermida in the fifth, then James Shanks hit a solo homer leading off the sixth against Wright.

Vargas served up a solo homer to Iker Franco in the seventh, but completed the inning en route to his seventh combined win of the season. 

Ross Wolf pitched a scoreless eighth inning, ending on Carolina's third double play of the game.  Kevin Cave (S, 1) registered his first Mudcats save with a scoreless ninth.

The Mudcats, who opened the first half 5-0, will shoot for a four-game sweep of the Braves in the series finale on Friday night.  Luke Lockwood (2-2, 3.57) starts against Chuck James (3-0, 3.19) at 7:15 PM ET.

MISSISSIPPI            0 2 0   0 0 0   1 0 0   ---   3   5   1   3

CAROLINA               1 2 0   0 1 1   0 0 x   ---   5   8   0   3

WP - Vargas (1-0)

LP - Wright (5-7)

S - Cave (1)

HR - Joseph (2), Franco (2), Shanks (7)

Time:  2:15

Att:  5,893