WRAL Sports Fan

Mudcats

Mudcats win in front of season-high crowd

May 22, 2011

Zebulon, N.C. — A season-high crowd of 6,678 saw the Carolina Mudcats defeat the Chattanooga Lookouts 4-1 to take a 2-1 series lead at Five County Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Kyle McCulloch (W, 1-1) notched his first organizational victory in the Cincinnati Reds chain, pitching six innings, allowing just one run on three hits. Travis Webb, Nick Christiani and Brad Boxberger (S, 2) collaborated to blank the Lookouts (21-22) over the final three frames.

Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Mike Costanzo and Neftali Soto doubled with two outs to tie the game, then after a single by David Cook, starter Nathan Eovaldi (L, 3-2) uncorked a wild pitch to score Soto and put the Mudcats ahead 2-1.

The Mudcats (13-30) pushed across two more runs in the sixth, thanks to a hitless inning. Reliever Justin Miller hit Cook to start the inning, then walked Jose Castro. Kevin Coddington reached on an error by Miller on a sacrifice bunt to fill the bases. David Pfeiffer relieved as the two runs scored. Felix Perez grounded to second base, with Elian Herrera throwing late to the plate attempting to force out Cook. Quintin Berry then hit a sacrifice fly to shallow centerfield to bring Castro home for a 4-1 lead. Lookouts manager Carlos Subero argued the call at home plate and was ejected by Jordan Farrell.

Soto, playing in just his second game in a month, doubled twice to lead the Carolina offense. Miguel Rojas went 2-5.

James Avery (3-5, 4.40) starts against Michael Antonini (2-6, 4.17) on Monday night at 7:15 PM ET.