LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Hoby Milner pitched the BlueClaws to their 8th shutout victory of the season, 5-0 over the Kannapolis Intimidators Wednesday night.

Lakewood's offense was fueled early by a 2nd inning Brian Pointer sacrifice fly and a 4th-inning Pointer two-run double for a 3-0 Lakewood lead. Maikel Franco scored on both plays and finished 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored.

Hoby Milner extended his scoreless innings streak to 18.2 with 6.1 innings to begin the ballgame. It was the second consecutive game in which Milner pitched into the 7th inning, and it was his third consecutive win to raise his record to 4-2 in eight starts.

With the win, Lakewood improves their second half record to 24-22 and the BlueClaws pull to within 1.0 games of first place-trailing the Hagerstown Suns, Hickory Crawdads and West Virginia Power in the South Atlantic League North Division.

After taking Game 1, the BlueClaws host Kannapolis in the second game of the four-game series Thursday evening. Lakewood will send Gabriel Arias (3-6, 3.95) to the mound to battle Casey Jarrett (4-5, 6.86).

First pitch for Thursday's game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Listen to all the action on WOBM 1160-AM and WOBM 1310-AM beginning at 6:50 p.m. with the BlueClaws Beat pre-game show.