Great pitching, two home runs and three double plays helped the Piedmont Boll Weevils wrap up a 4-0 win Monday night in a tidy 2 hours, 3 minutes.

Everything clicked on a wet night at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium for the first-place Weevils, who improved to 38-20, 41

Matire Franco pitched a complete-game six-hitter. The defense turned three rally-killing double plays behind him. And Jay Sitzman and Russ Jacobson provided instant offense with the long ball.

“That was a great effort,”Piedmont manager Greg Legg said. “No errors, a complete-game shutout — it was a great game to watch in ‘A’ ball.”

Franco’s gem marked only the second complete-game shutout for Piedmont this season. Brett Myers threw the first on May 22. The key for Franco was control, as he walked only three batters. He had allowed a team-high 33 free passes in 52 innings entering the game.

“Franco’s ball moves a lot, and the problem he had earlier in the year was throwing strikes,”Legg said. “It’s so important to get strike one and make the other team swing the bat.”

Franco walked Torre Tyson to lead off the game but erased him on a double play comebacker to the mound.

In the third inning, Spencer Brazeal reached on an error but strayed too far off first base on Tyson’s low liner to center. Shomari Beverly raced in to make the catch, then made an easy throw to first for Piedmont’s second twin-killing.

The third double play, started by shortstop Julio Collazo, erased a leadoff single in the sixth.

“He got some ground balls and they made the plays behind him,”Legg said. “Three double plays gives you two outs real quick.”

Franco (4-2) didn’t need much more help. He retired the Bats in order in the second inning and surrendered a harmless single in the fourth.

Greensboro’s best chances to rally came in the fifth and seventh innings. Wily Mo Pena opened the fifth with a double down the third-base side and Greensboro put runners at first and third with two outs for Tyson, who flew out to left.

In the seventh, three straight two-out singles loaded the bases, but Tyson grounded a ball to third and Tom Batson stepped on the bag to end the threat.

“I was hitting my spots with the fastball. Wherever I wanted to throw it, I hit it,”said the Spanish-speaking Franco through an interpreter. “I only threw two changeups all game.”

Piedmont only collected seve0n hits off Bats starter SamMarsonek, but made the most of them.

The Weevils didn’t reach base until the bottom of the third, when Beverly sent a one-out single to left field. Two batters later, Sitzman rocketed a line drive just over the center-field fence for his third homer of the year and a 2-0 lead.

Jacobson added his blast the next inning, sending a liner to the opposite field in right to make it 3-0.

Piedmont looked ready to jump on Greensboro’s tall right-hander in the sixth, when Batson and Marlon Byrd ripped shots to left field. But after Byrd’s run-scoring double, Marsonek got six straight outs and Bats reliever John Kremer pitched a perfect eighth.

Franco didn’t allow a hit after the seventh. He surrendered his third walk of the night with two outs in the eighth, then struck out the last two men up in the ninth, one waving at a curve, the other missing a heater high and away.

“In his last start, we took him out in the top of the fifth. He had a four-run lead, but it was 9-5,”Legg said. “I told him not to worry about that, that he’d be fine tonight.”

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