ZEBULON - Carolina piled up the at bats and one-run innings early in Wednesday night's home opener against Montgomery, while standout pitching prospect Chris Volstad piled up the ground ball outs. The result was a solid, 7-1 decision over the Biscuits before a crowd of 3,191 at Five County Stadium.

Volstad recorded 14 ground ball outs on the night with just one strikeout and halted a two-game Carolina losing streak after a 3-0 start.

The Mudcats' batting order pushed across single runs in five of the first six innings to take two four-run leads. Montgomery (2-4) pitched well but gave up six infield hits. Carolina (4-2) left the bases loaded in each of the first three innings, giving Volstad plenty of rest between innings on the bench but not much of a lead to work with.

"I was a little worried about that but as a pitcher, you like long innings because it usually means you're team's scoring runs," said Carolina manager Matt Raleigh. "But he came right back out there each time and got back at it."

Biscuits' starter Jake McGee, Tampa Bay's top-rated pitching prospect, threw 74 pitches in the first two innings and was pulled after the second inning. Montgomery hurlers threw a total of 170 pitches on the night.

"When you play a team in game one of a series and get into their bullpen after two innings and make that bullpen eat innings, it can only help you the rest of the series," Raleigh said.

Carolina lead off man John Raynor, a Benson native, saw 25 of those pitches. He drew a seven-pitch walk in his first at bat and a six-pitch walk in the second inning, scoring both times he reached base.

"There's a balance you want to make between seeing a lot of pitches and staying aggressive if you get your pitch," Raynor said. "At the same time, especially early in the game, you want to make him throw some pitches, especially with the stuff most of these starters have because that just helps you get to the bullpen earlier.

"It's a matter of just taking what they give you [walks] if you don't get your pitch to hit."

After hitting .327 at Low-A Greensboro last season, Raynor went 1-for-15 on the Mudcats' season-opening road trip without a walk, leaving his average and on-base percentage at .067.

Raynor was 1-for-2 on Wednesday night but scored two runs and drove in two.

"He looked more comfortable out there tonight," Raleigh said of Raynor. "I think he was a little overwhelmed last week and started trying to chase numbers. I had a talk with him last week and told him he's going to be out there.

"He tough a big jump and has seen a lot better pitching. There were some tough luck balls that didn't fall in in Mobile and he had another one of those tonight."

After bringing home Carolina's third run of the night on a sacrifice fly to center, Raynor singled off of the leg of Montgomery pitcher Jeremy Flanagan in the fifth, scoring Manuel Mayorson. Raynor then lined out to center in the top of the seventh.

"Early on, I just wasn't seeing the ball well enough out of the pitcher's hand," Raynor said. "But I feel like I made an adjustment that's helped that part of it. Then I started hitting the ball better but it got to the point where you had to laugh at some of the line outs."

Gaby Sanchez drilled a two-run home run in the eighth to score Carolina's final two runs.

The series continues through Sunday at Five County Stadium. Thursday and Friday games start at 7:15, followed by a 6:15 first pitch on Saturday and a 2 p.m. start on Sunday.