With a mighty swing, Mike Jones rocketed the Salem Red Sox into the Carolina League's championship series.

Jones blasted a towering two-run home run over the right-field wall in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Red Sox completed a three-game sweep of the Winston-Salem Dash in the Southern Division championship series with a 6-4 victory at Salem Memorial Ballpark on Friday night.

"I feel fantastic," Jones said, spitting remnants of celebratory shaving cream ambush out of his mouth. "It's the best feeling in the world, the best feeling in the world."

Salem celebrated on the field, and again in the clubhouse.

The Red Sox will have to wait to find out their opponent in the Mills Cup championship series to determine the league champion. Wilmington took a 2-1 lead in its Northern Division series with a 2-0 win in 12 innings over Lynchburg on Friday.

The best-of-five series begins Monday with the first of two games at the home of the Northern Division champion. Game 3 will be in Salem on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. If needed, Games 4 and 5 also will be in Salem on Friday and Saturday.

Winston-Salem had won the Southern Division's first-half title and tied with Salem for the second-half title. The Dash had the best overall record in the division at 73-69.

The Red Sox (67-72 overall) won 11 of their last 16 regular season games to make the playoffs on the final day of the regular season with a 35-35 mark, then swept Winston-Salem in three games in the division championship series.

Salem won Game 1 behind the major-league pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and a two-run homer by Brad Correll and, after more fireworks from Correll and an outstanding start by Kyle Weiland, took Game 2 on a two-run, two-out double in the 11th inning by Jon Hee.

"It seems like the last week or two it's been comeback win after comeback win," Jones said. "Sometimes baseball comes down to who wants it more, and we really wanted it."

Game 3 was a pitchers' duel, with Salem's Seth Garrison and Winston-Salem's Jason Rasner each allowing one run through the first six innings.

The Dash took a 4-1 lead with three runs off of reliever Jason Rice in the top of the seventh inning. Rice walked the first two batters he faced.

The runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a double by Dale Mollenhauer before Rice was relieved by Josh Papelbon. Mollenhauer then scored on an single by Greg Paiml.

But Salem answered with three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Chih-Hsien Chiang got the rally started with a one-out single. Then, Nate Jones relieved starter Jacob Rasner. Chiang went to second on a passed ball. Then, Jones walked Zach Borowiak. Ryan Dent doubled to bring Chiang home. Borowiak scored from third on a groundout by Che-Hsuan Lin. Then, Dent scored on a single by Hee to even the score at 4.

Papelbon, Jason Blackey and Derrick Loop combined to keep the Dash from scoring again.

Hector Santiago was doing the same for Winston-Salem until Correll singled to shallow right to lead off the 10th.

Jones then came to the plate looking for Santiago to throw him a cut fastball.

"He threw me one on the last at-bat and I looked pretty bad on it, so I decided to sit on it," Jones said. "You're not supposed to guess in baseball, but I guessed and got lucky."

How the runs scored

Winston-Salem second: Loman homered. Dash 1, Red Sox 0.

Salem third: One out. Hee singled. Rizzo singled, Hee to second. Hee stole third and scored on a throwing error by Ricks. Red Sox 1, Dash 1.

Winston-Salem seventh: Johnson walked. Ricks walked, Johnson to second. Kuhn sacrifice bunted, Johnson to third, Ricks to second. Johnson scored on a balk by Rice, Ricks to third. Mollenhauer doubled, Ricks scored. Papelbon relieved Rice. Paiml singled, Mollenhauer scored. Dash 4, Red Sox 1.

Salem seventh: One out. Chiang singled. Jones relieved Rasner. Chiang to second on a passed ball by Ricks. Borowiak walked. Dent doubled, Chiang scored, Borowiak to third. Lin grounded out, Borowiak scored. Hee singled, Dent scored. Red Sox 4, Dash 4.

Salem 10th: Correll singled. Jones homered, Correll scored. Red Sox 6, Dash 4.

WINSTON-SALEM SALEM

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Mollenhauer 2b 4 1 3 1 Lin cf 5 0 0 1

Paimi ss 5 0 2 1 Hee 3b 4 1 3 1

Sanchez rf 5 0 0 0 Rizzo 1b 5 0 2 0

Morel 3b 5 0 2 0 Correll rf 4 1 1 0

Loman 1b 5 1 1 1 Jones dh 5 1 2 2

Greene cf 5 0 0 0 Federowicz c 4 0 0 0

Johnson dh 3 1 1 0 Chiang lf 3 1 1 0

Ricks c 3 1 0 0 Mailman lf 0 0 0 0

Kuhn lf 3 0 0 0 Borowiak 2b 3 1 1 0

Dent ss 4 1 1 1

Totals 38 4 9 3 Totals 37 6 11 5

Winston-Salem 010 000 300 0-- 4

Salem 001 000 300 2-- 6

E--Ricks (1), Borowiak (1). LOB--Winston-Salem 9, Salem 8. 2B--Paimi (1), Mollenhauer (1), Hee (2), Dent (1). HR--Loman (1), Jones (1). S--Kuhn. SB--Mollenhauer (1), Hee (1). CS--Paimi (1).

IP H R ER BB SO

Winston-Salem

Rasner 6 1-3 5 2 2 1 5

Jones 1-3 2 2 2 1 0

Santiago L, 0-1 2 1-3 4 2 2 1 1

Salem

Garrison 6 5 1 1 1 5

Rice 1-3 1 3 3 2 0

Papelbon 2-3 2 0 0 0 1

Blackey 2 1-3 1 0 0 1 2

Loop W, 1-0 2-3 0 0 0 0 1

WP--Rasner, Garrison.

HBP--by Santiago (Hee).

Umpires--Home: Goebel; 1B: Benham; 2B: Dudones; 3B: Kline.

T--3:29.

A--3,035.