Jackson, TN --- The Carolina Mudcats moved to within one win of their fourth Southern League Championship Series appearance, destroying first-half champ West Tenn 11-2 on Thursday night at Pringles Park to take a commanding two games to none lead in the best of five series.

Carolina, which was one-hit by Diamond Jaxx starter Tracy Thorpe on August 13th, assaulted Thorpe (L, 0-1) for four runs on three hits in the top of the first inning to set the tenor for the game. Gaby Sanchez collected his first extra base hit of the season against West Tenn pitching in his 35th at-bat, doubling in John Raynor, who had reached on an infield single. Later in the inning, Thorpe walked consecutive hitters to force in a second run before Chris DeLaCruz drilled a two-run double to left-center to give Aaron Thompson (W, 1-0) a 4-0 lead before he made his first pitch.

Thompson, who drew two losses in two starts against West Tenn in the regular season with an ERA of 14.63, permitted a two-run double to slugger Mike Wilson in the first inning, then blanked the Diamond Jaxx over the balance of his five-inning start. West Tenn was only 1-9 in clutch situations against Thompson over his outing.

For the second straight game, the Mudcats bullpen was stalwart. Jarrett Santos, Tim Wood, Todd Doolittle and Chris Mobley combined for four shutout innings to polish off the victory. In the two road victories, Carolina's relievers have worked eight scoreless innings allowing just four hits.

The Mudcats added a run in the sixth on a DeLaCruz sacrifice fly, another in the eighth on a sac fly by Brad Davis, then salted the game away with five in the ninth, highlighted by a two-run homer by Sanchez to left field against West Tenn closer Shawn Kelley.

Carolina had 12 hits, with Sanchez accruing three of them. DeLaCruz, who is 5-7 in the series with five RBI, was 2-3. Scott Cousins was 1-3 with a double and three runs scored to help assist the offense.

Carolina will have its first opportunity to advance to the Southern League Championship Series on Saturday night, eyeing a three-game sweep of West Tenn at Five County Stadium. Brett Sinkbeil (5-9, 5.02) will start against Luis Munoz (1-2, 5.83) at 6:15 PM ET.

Carolina advanced to the championship series in 1994, 1995 and 2003, winning titles in 1995 and 2003.

The Southern Division Championship Series opened in Birmingham, AL on Thursday night with the Mississippi Braves edging the host Barons 1-0. Game two is slated for Friday night at Regions Park.