Mississippi destroys Carolina

Published in Sports on April 11, 2007 1:47 PM

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PEARL, Miss. -- Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered twice to aid North Carolina native Matt Harrison and Mississippi pounded out 14 hits in a season-opening 12-6 victory over Carolina at Trustmark Park on Tuesday evening.

Harrison, who hails from Stern and pitched at South Granville High, worked five innings on six hits. He permitted two earned runs and handed the Mudcats another loss.

The Braves (4-2) scored a run in each of the first three innings against Jesus Delgado (1-1) to gain a 3-0 advantage. Saltalamacchia hit a solo shot to right in the third, then belted a longer bomb in the eighth off reliever Harvey Garcia

Matt Esquivel followed with a home run to left to cap the Braves' big offensive night.

Carolina amassed a season-high 12 hits, including three apiece from Kevin Randel, Brett Carroll and Lee Mitchell. Trailing 3-0 in the fourth, the Mudcats scored twice with two outs thanks to run-scoring hits by Mitchell and Ryan Bear.

However, the Braves knocked out Delgado in the fifth when the first three reached and ultimately scored. Scott Nestor was touched for three more in the inning as the Braves built a comfortable 9-2 margin.

The Mudcats scored twice in the sixth and again in the seventh, with Mitchell singling home a ninth-inning run to close the scoring.

Delgado yielded six runs over four-plus innings and fanned five. He has Carolina's lone mound win of the season.