ZEBULON — If you hang around enough baseball clubhouses and subscribe to enough old baseball axioms, you might believe that good pitching beats good hitting. And if you hang around Carolina Mudcats manager Matt Raleigh, you might believe that good base running beats just about everything else.

Raleigh will snap his fingers and clap his hands at least a couple of times each game, part of a series of signals for his players to drop their heads and sprint toward the next base. He is aggressive and, to this point during the season, his aggressiveness has worked.

The Mudcats beat the Huntsville Stars, 5-4, on Saturday night at Five County Stadium, in large thanks to five more stolen bases. The Mudcats failed to convert a sixth attempt, marring an otherwise perfect game, so to speak, but right fielder Kris Harvey did score the game-winning run on a passed ball in the bottom of the eighth, another high-risk, high-reward run around the bases that paid dividends for the team.

"We kind of live and die with that," Raleigh said. "We don't have a lot of power in this lineup, so we have to kind of take advantage of our speed, and I think we've been doing a good job of that."

Yes, the Mudcats (6-5 second half, 44-37 overall) have run well this season, to say the least. After five steals Saturday and five more Friday night, they lead the Southern League with 121 stolen bases. The Stars (5-6, 46-35) are second in the league with 81 steals.

The Mudcats started their sprints early Saturday night against Huntsville right-hander Nic Ungs, a former Mudcat who hurled a no-hitter for Carolina in 2005, though with little success. Shortstop Manuel Mayorson and second baseman Chris Coghlan executed a double steal in the first inning, though neither scored. Third baseman Gaby Sanchez nabbed a base in the third, but did not score, either. And Mayorson stole another base in the fifth but also failed to score.

Finally, with one out in the seventh, Coghlan stole second, then rounded the bases and scored a run to give the Mudcats a brief 3-2 lead after Sanchez doubled to the gap in left-center field.

An inning later, Harvey sprinted home on that passed ball to give the Mudcats a 4-3 lead, and the lead for good.

Carolina right-hander Brett Sinkbeil allowed two runs in six solid innings.

Righty Jesus Delgado (5-1) did not allow an earned run in two innings and, thanks to Harvey's legs, picked up another win in relief.

"In that situation we were looking for something, obviously, out of the infield, because the infield was in," Harvey, a right fielder, said. "A high chopper or something slow would have been good, too. But I was ready, I was in go mode, to get a good jump on the ball.

"And I never hesitated, so I guess that was good."

With Raleigh calling the shots this season, there has been no time for any Mudcat to hesitate.

Matt LaWell can be reached at 407-9952 or mlawell@coxnc.com

Huntsville 2

Carolina 1

HUN 100 010 001 – 4 7 1

CAR 100 001 12x – 5 9 1

WP: Jesus Delgado (5-1, 2IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 1BB, 1K); LP: Patrick Ryan (2-4, 1 1-3IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 1K); Sv: Chris Mobley (13, 1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 3K).

2B: Andrew Jenkins (CAR), Gaby Sanchez (CAR), Cameron Maybin (CAR); Cole Gillespie (HUN); HR: Gillespie (HUN).