Shoemaker Surpasses Record as Suns Blast Mudcats
Zebulon, N.C. - Chin-Lung Hu went three-for-six with a homerun and six RBI while Zach Hammes pitched six shutout innings leading the Jacksonville Suns (55-34, 14-5) to a dominating 16-6 victory over the Carolina Mudcats (36-53, 8-11) Friday night at Five County Stadium.
With the win Suns Manager John Shoemaker has the most wins of any skipper in Jacksonville's Southern League history (since 1970) with 303, surpassing Tommy Thompson's 302 wins (1985-88). Shoemaker has led the Suns to two Southern League Championships and two Southern League Manager of the Year honors in his previous three seasons at the helm.
The Suns started scoring early on Carolina starter James Russ as they loaded the bases with no outs off of two singles and a walk. Alberto Concepcion's single through the left side scored James Tomlin to open a 1-0 lead. In the third inning Anthony Raglani doubled home Alberto Concepcion with two out for a 2-0 lead.
Jacksonville jumped on Russ again with two out in the fourth inning when Chin-Lung Hu smashed a ball over the 20-foot right field wall for a three-run homerun, his sixth of the season, opening a 5-0 lead.
The Suns offense faced Mudcats reliever Craig Molldrem in the fifth inning, and suffered two outs before back-to-back walks from A.J. Ellis and Juan Gonzalez. David Nicholson's single scored Ellis to open a 6-0 lead. After a Zach Hammes walk to load the bases, Molldrem hit James Tomlin with a pitch to make it 7-0. Chin-Lung Hu next smashed a three-run double off the wall in left-centerfield to clear the bases and open a 10-0 advantage, giving Hu six RBI on the night. Carlos Martinez next entered the game from the bullpen and allowed a double from Cory Dunlap to score Hu and finish the scoring in the fifth at 11-0.
On the other side Suns starter Zach Hammes dominated the Carolina offense, scattering three hits in six shutout innings with two walks and four strikeouts.
The Mudcats finally got on the board in the seventh inning off of the Suns bullpen when Luis Gonzalez entered the game. The southpaw walked three with two wild pitches before leaving the game in favor of Ramon Troncoso. The right-handed reliever allowed a two-run double from former Suns infielder Eric Riggs and an RBI hit from Chase Lambin and later an RBI single from Frank Moore to get Carolina within 11-6.
Jacksonville erased any thought of a Carolina comeback by scoring four eighth-inning runs, including RBI hits from David Nicholson and Kevin Howard followed by a sacrifice fly by James Tomlin, opening a 15-6 lead. Juan Gonzalez hit a ninth inning sacrifice fly off of Carolina infielder Rex Rundgren to finish the scoring at 16-6.
Zach Hammes (4-5) picked up the win for Jacksonville while James Russ (1-3) fell in the loss for Carolina.
The Suns 16 runs and 17 hits are both new season highs, along with the 10-run margin of victory. The Suns now lead the season series against Carolina 15-4, a series scheduled for 30 games.
The Suns and Mudcats finish the current series Saturday at 6:15 p.m. Suns LH Mike Megrew will face Mudcats RH Jesus Delgado. Suns manager John Shoemaker and infielder Chin-Lung Hu will miss the game while traveling to San Francisco for Sunday's XM Satellite Radio Futures Game at AT&T Park. Fans can follow Saturday's series finale in Jacksonville on AM 930 The Fox or online at jaxsuns.com.