Montgomery 12, Carolina 6

Montgomery, AL --- A seven-run second inning spurred Montgomery to a 12-6 victory over Carolina on Wednesday night, completing a five-game sweep of the Mudcats at Riverwalk Stadium, and officially eliminating Carolina from the Northern Division race.  

Carolina's third-worst road season concluded with its third sweep away from the confines of Five County Stadium.  Even before the game began, Carolina manager Brandon Hyde was ejected while exchanging the lineup cards.  Hyde engaged with third base umpire Doug Levy in a continuation of Tuesday night's post-game incident and was tossed by crew chief Manny Gonzalez.  The ejection energized a sluggish Carolina offense, which had scored three runs in the first four games at Riverwalk.  Carolina assumed a 3-0 lead after the first three batters of the game.  Dante Brinkley singled to left, then pulled his right hamstring while scoring from first base on a double into the left field corner by Johnny Raburn.  Chase Lambin followed with a two-run homer against Tony Peguero.  

The Biscuits scored seven times in the second against Marlins' #1 prospect Chris Volstad.  Five of the seven runs scored after a disputed call at third base by Levy.  Erold Andrus broke for second on a pitch from Volstad, which went to the backstop.  Andrus continued past second and attempted for third.  Catcher Brett Hayes' throw beat Andrus easily, but Levy signaled that Lee Mitchell missed the tag.  Interim manager Scott Mitchell held a controlled argument with Levy.  After Volstad recorded the second out of the inning, Josh Asanovich homered to left, then following a Fernando Perez triple and RBI-single from Brooks Badeaux, Reid Brignac launched a tape-measure homer to right to cap Montgomery's second-largest inning of the series.  The Biscuits touched Gaby Hernandez for nine runs in the first inning of Tuesday's doubleheader opener.   

More controversy stemmed in the Mudcats' third inning.  Following a one-out walk to Raburn, Lambin drove a ball toward the right-centerfield wall.  Perez chased toward the ball from centerfield, leaped into the wall and then came down to the ground.  First base umpire Chris Ward ran to the outfield to determine if a catch was made or if Lambin's ball cleared the wall.  Meanwhile, Lambin trotted past Raburn by a few paces, both nearing the second base bag.  Ward then signaled that Lambin had homered.  When the umpires viewed the scene of the Mudcats' baserunners, Lambin was ruled out for passing Raburn on the basepaths.  Raburn was permitted to score, but Lambin was credited only with an RBI-single instead of his second home run.  Another Carolina protest ensued, but the call stood and the Mudcats trimmed Montgomery's lead to just 7-4. 

Ryan Bear hit a two-run homer against Peguero in the fourth cutting the game to 7-6, but the Biscuits would reel off the final five runs of the game en route to their club-record 11th consecutive win.  

The Mudcats concluded the road slate 24-46, only bettering a 20-win campaign in 1998 (20-50) and 21 last season (21-49).  Carolina dropped all 10 games in Montgomery in 2007, and has lost a club-record 14 straight at Riverwalk dating to July, 2006.  

With the loss and Huntsville's rainout with West Tenn, Carolina was mathematically eliminated from the playoff race.  Even with a five-game sweep over Tennessee, Carolina would finish the season at 35-35, while if Huntsville loses all five games in Birmingham, the Stars would complete the half 35-34.  

James Russ (1-5, 3.69) makes his final start of the season on Thursday night against Tennessee's Mitch Atkins (1-1, 6.43) at 7:15 PM ET at Five County Stadium.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Carolina 3 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 12 2 Montgomery 0 7 0 2 1 0 0 2 x 12 16 0