The season opened with four straight rough outings for Salem Avalanche starter David Qualben.

The left-hander, who had been the Lexington Legends' wins leader last season, started this year 0-3. After allowing six runs in three innings last Thursday in Myrtle Beach, his earned run average had ballooned to 9.75.

Qualben decided he had to make a change; he grew a mustache.

On Wednesday, Qualben credited the wispy white growth on his upper lip after he blanked the Kinston Indians for seven innings to lead the Avalanche to a 5-0 Carolina League victory at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.

The win broke a three-game losing streak for Salem (12-13). It was only the fourth win in Salem's last 12 games.

"Tonight was huge," Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits said. "In baseball, things can really snowball. We've got to be really careful not to let it get out of hand.

"We haven't had any real good streaks, either. Hopefully we can get something going."

Before Tuesday's 12-inning loss, Pankovits had called a team meeting.

"We hadn't been playing well in all aspects of the game," Pankovits said. "We hadn't been pitching well, hitting well, playing good defense, and our base running has been bad.

"I thought [Tuesday] we played better defensively. But we're still early in the season and we have a lot of work to do. I told them they need to check the mirror and look at their teammates and see what they need to do. They've certainly gotten enough suggestions from us."

No doubt growing facial hair wasn't among those suggestions. But Qualben is a left-handed pitcher, and they are rumored to float a little left of center from time to time.

"After my fourth poor start in a row, I thought anything can help," Qualben said with a huge grin.

The Indians managed just two hits, one walk and one hit batter against Qualben, and less than that in two innings against reliever Bryan Hallberg.

Kinston didn't get a runner to second base all night and, thanks to three pickoffs by Qualben, the Indians only stranded one runner.

"My pitches felt like they were a lot sharper tonight," Qualben said. "The first inning or two my control wasn't all the way there, but I fought through it and then from the third inning it was like the ball felt smooth coming out of my hand. My slider was breaking a lot more and I felt like my change-up was tailing a little better."

Control is important for Qualben, whom manager Jim Pankovits described as "far from a power pitcher."

"It's called getting ahead of hitters and making them hit in pitchers' counts instead of hitters counts," Pankovits said.

Qualben's game plan Wednesday was to throw even more off-speed pitches than usual thanks to a scouting report from Tuesday's starter, Corey Bass.

"He told me these guys have trouble with off-speed pitches," Qualben said. "And Koby [Clemens] did a great job of calling pitches."

Clemens also drove in a pair of runs with a single in the fourth inning. Greg Buchanan had an RBI groundout in the seventh and Cesar Quintero and Jimmy Van Ostrand each had an RBI single.

Jordan Parraz singled to lead off the Salem eighth -- stretching his on-base streak to 22 games -- then stole second and scored on Van Ostrand's single.

How the runs scored

Salem fourth: One out. Ori singled. Van Ostrand walked, Ori to second. Rosales singled to load the bases. Clemens singled, Ori scored, Van Ostrand scored. Avalanche 2, Indians 0.

Salem seventh: One out. Clemens walked. Clemens went to second on an error by Mills on a pickoff attempt. Florentino walked. Quintero singled, Clemens scored. Florentino went to third on a fielding error by Denham. Quintero went to second on a throwing error by Denham. Buchanan grounded out, Florentino scored. Avalanche 4, Indians 0.

Salem eighth: Parraz singled. Parraz stole second. Ori grounded out. Van Ostrand singled, Parraz scored. Avalanche 5, Indians 0.

KINSTON SALEM

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Head dh 4 0 0 0 Buchanan 2b 4 0 0 1

Denham rf 3 0 1 0 Torres ss 4 0 1 0

Mills 1b 2 0 0 0 Parraz cf 4 1 1 0

Goedert 3b 3 0 0 0 Ori dh 4 1 1 0

Weglarz lf 3 0 1 0 Van Ostrand 1b 3 1 1 1

Rivero ss 3 0 0 0 Rosales rf 4 0 1 0

Cumberbatch cf 3 0 0 0 Clemens c 2 1 2 2

Romero 2b 3 0 0 0 Florentino 3b 2 1 0 0

Juhl c 2 0 0 0 Quintero lf 3 0 1 1

Totals 26 0 2 0 Totals 30 5 8 5

Kinston 000 000 000 -- 0

Salem 000 200 21x -- 5

E--Mills (5), Denham 2 (2). DP--Kinston 2. LOB--Kinston 1, Salem 4. SB--Parraz (6). CS--Weglarz (1), Mills (1).

IP H R ER BB SO

Kinston

Gomez L,0-4 6 5 2 2 1 4

Taylor 2 3 3 2 2 2

Salem

Qualben W,1-3 7 2 0 0 1 2

Hallberg 2 0 0 0 0 3

HBP--by Qualben (Mills).

Umpires--Home: Johnson; Bases: Arcovio.

T--2:11.

Att.--1,877.