Hoover, AL --- Gio Gonzalez and three Birmingham pitchers combined to three-hit Carolina on Friday night, leading to a 4-2 victory over the Mudcats at Regions Park.   

Gonzalez (W, 1-0) fanned nine over his five no-hit innings to earn the win.  Carolina (1-1) did not manage its first hit of the game until Grant Psomas doubled over the head of first baseman Jeremy West to lead off the seventh.  By then, the Mudcats were trailing 3-0, but sliced the deficit down to a run thanks to an RBI-triple by Lee Mitchell, followed by a run-producing groundout by Kevin Randel.   

Birmingham (1-1) added an insurance run in the seventh off of reliever Harvey Garcia on a two-out single by Chris Getz.   

Mudcats starter Daniel Barone (L, 0-1) retired the first 10 batters of the game before bumping into trouble in the fourth. 

With one out, six of the next seven Barons reached, keyed by an RBI-triple from Thomas Collaro to give Birmingham a 1-0 advantage.  Birmingham scored three runs on four hits in that inning against Barone, who threw four perfect innings to round out his first start of the season.  

Carolina will start Gaby Hernandez on Saturday night at 8:05 PM ET against Jack Egbert. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Carolina 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 3 1 Birmingham 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 x 4 6 0