Roegner, Sanchez toss three-hit shutout in Buies Creek

Buies Creek, N.C. — Cam Roegner struck out six over six and 2/3 scoreless innings, Miguel Sanchez earned his first save and Keston Hiura went 2-for-5 with a double and a home run as the Mudcats shut out the Astros 5-0 on Monday night at Jim Perry Stadium.

Roegner (3-1, 1.08) turned in his fourth quality start of the season while leading the Mudcats (15-16) to the series opening victory over the first place Astros (18-13). He allowed a hit in the second, but faced only three batters in the frame while going on to face the minimum through the fifth. In all, Roegner allowed just two hits, walked two and struck out six while pitching to a 78 game score. He left the game with two outs in the seventh after reaching 94 pitches (59 strikes) and ended up earning his third win of the season.

Sanchez (S, 1) followed Roegner out of the bullpen and went on to finish the game while earning his first save of the season. Sanchez struck out five and allowed just one hit while facing eight batters over the final two and 1/3 innings for the Mudcats.

Roegner and Sanchez combined for 11 strikeouts against just two walks while teaming on the three-hit shutout. The 5-0 road win improved the Mudcats to 6-1 in shutouts this season.

The game was scoreless through the third before the Mudcats scored twice in the fourth while taking a 2-0 lead. Hiura started the two run rally with a double off starter Brandon Bailey. Hiura then moved to third while Tucker Neuhaus reached first on a strikeout wild pitch. Dallas Carroll then brought in Hiura with a sacrifice fly to put Carolina up 1-0. Neuhaus also tagged on Carroll’s flyout and scored moments later on a sacrifice fly from Ronnie Gideon.

The Mudcats led 2-0 through the fifth, but then went up 3-0 in the sixth after Hiura started the inning with a solo home run off reliever Carson LaRue. The home run was his fourth of the season, and his second in his last four games.

Bailey (0-3, 4.74) ended up taking the loss for the Astros after allowing two runs on three hits over five innings pitched. He also walked two and struck out six. LaRue, meanwhile, bounced back after the home run with four straight strikeouts between the sixth and seventh innings.

The Carolina offense did eventually get to LaRue after rallying for two more runs in the eighth while knocking the Buies Creek reliever out of the game. Ryan Aguilar started the rally with a walk and later scored on a RBI double from Neuhaus. Luis Aviles Jr. also had a RBI single in the eighth as the Mudcats took a 5-0 lead before wrapping up the series opening victory.

Despite striking out 15 times in the game, the Carolina offense totaled five runs on nine hits while also getting multi-hit games from Hiura (2-for-5, HR, 2 R) and Weston Wilson (2-for-4). Neuhaus struck out three times, but also went 1-for-4 with two runs and a RBI double the Carolina victory.

The series will continue on Tuesday night with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Jim Perry Stadium at Buies Creek. The game will air on the Mudcats Radio Network, The Big Dawg 98.5 FM and online at carolinamudcats.com via TuneIn Radio