For the past five days, Chance Douglass could say that his most recent start on the pitching mound had been his best.

Now he can say that for another five days.

Douglass pitched eight innings of shutout ball in notching his second straight quality start and the Salem Avalanche infield turned four double plays in a 4-0 victory over the Potomac Nationals on Sunday afternoon at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.

Salem (19-31) split the four-game series with Potomac (22-26) and finished a seven-game homestand 4-3.

Douglass (3-5) struck out five batters and walked only one in a tidy game that ended after 1 hour, 58 minutes and followed back-to-back drubbings at the hands of the Nationals. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound right-hander has not allowed a run during his past two starts, including 6 2/3 scoreless innings against Kinston last Monday.

As any good 21-year-old minor-leaguer will do, he credited his pitching coach, Stan Boroski.

"Everything he's had me work on has paid off," said Douglass, an Amarillo, Texas native selected out of high school in the 12th round of the 2002 draft by the Houston Astros. He is the youngest player on the Salem roster.

Boroski said it was all in the mechanics.

"He was staying through the pitches much better, locating so much much better than previously," Boroski said. Douglass had been averaging nearly three walks per nine innings, but issued just one free pass Sunday.

"The important thing is just to focus on the next pitch," Douglass said. "I'm going to throw this with what it takes to get it there. Whatever happens, happens."

What happened wasn't enough for the Nationals. They got runners on base in six innings against Douglass, but were foiled by double plays four times. Three of the twin-killings resulted from line drives caught by infielders, who doubled off runners straying too far from their bases. Had any one of those liners found a hole ...

"... It's probably a whole different game," Douglass said. "That's baseball. Today, I got the breaks. I made pitches and got breaks."

His biggest break came in the seventh when he nursed a 1-0 lead. After Kory Casto doubled in his 11th straight game, Avalanche second baseman Wade Robinson muffed a routine grounder to put runners on the corners with one out. Potomac's Doc Brooks hit into a conventional 5-4-3 double play that ended Potomac's best threat.

Salem won "The Avalanche Way," wringing four runs from a scant five hits. Robinson's sacrifice bunt in the third scored Edwin Maysonet with the only run Douglass and the Avs needed.

They added two more in the seventh when Mike Floyd led off with a double and scored when the Nats botched a rundown between third and home after Scott Robinson's grounder. Maysonet lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, Then, in the eighth, Drew Sutton doubled and Wade Robinson singled him home.

Douglass turned the corner over the past week because of his intention to challenge hitters with more strikes, said Salem manager Ivan DeJesus.

"When you're aggressive," he said, "you don't count on talent, you count on throwing strikes, control and tempo of the game. When you stay ahead of hitters, you can throw anything you want. Everything was good today."

Note

Salem outfielder John Fagan was promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi following the game.

The Avalanche will fill the hole with recently acquired outfielder Wilton Reynolds, according to the team's Web site.

Reynolds, who was drafted in the seventh round of the 2002 draft by Detroit, was hitting .206 in 34 at-bats with Lakeland of the Florida State League.