Chillicothe found itself some extra muscles on the team's annual dime-a-dog night Monday, where the VA Stadium record tally of wieners was consumed, as the Paints launched three home runs in a 7-3 victory over the Southern Illinois Miners.

The Miners, making their debut appearance in Chillicothe as one of the FL's two new teams for the 2007 season, took the game's first lead with a single run in the third inning.

The rest of the way, though, it was all Paints.

Jon Poterson crushed a three-run homer in the fourth inning that keyed a five-run inning.

"That was a pretty good fundamental inning there," Paints manager Mark Mason said, praising not only the homer but a later sacrifice bunt by Paul Rutgers that put the final two runs of the inning into scoring position. "We got the hits when we needed them and we moved guys over. It resulted in a crooked number for us. That took some pressure off Brian Marshall."

Marshall, making just his fifth start of the season, wasn't always sharp, but he was crafty enough to keep himself out of trouble until late in the game.

"He did something a little different tonight," Mason said of Marshall. "He was working out of more arm slots tonight with more consistency. That's something he wants to do. He drops down and he likes to get back on top. He likes to give the hitter some different looks."

Marshall allowed three earned runs in six innings of work with two walks and one strikeout.

By the time he gave up his final two runs, however, he was already staked to a large lead.

Up 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Chillicothe got some insurance when Adrian Cantu lofted his sixth homer of the season over the right field wall.

The next batter, catcher Dan Cummins, did anything but loft the ball that he got ahold of.

Cummins nothing short of destroyed the offering from Miners' starter Brian Blomquist, crushing his second homer of the season on a deep shot over the left field wall.

Cummins, who entered the game batting .325, went 3-for-3 Monday with an RBI and two runs scored.

"Dan's been a good pickup for us to this point," Mason said. "We got Dan out of the Mets organization. I have some buddies in that organization who called me up after he got released and said we know you're looking for some catching, this is the type of guy we know that you'll like."

Obviously they were right.

Cummins' blast put Chillicothe ahead 7-1.

Marshall began the seventh inning with the comfortable lead, but gave up a single to Scott Simon, walked Eric Suttle and Mike Victor then loaded the bases with another single.

Kevin Koski drove one run home on a single to left field, ending Marshall's night.

Marty Wiesler came on in relief and did not allow a hit, but Southern Illinois managed to push across another run on a fielder's choice.

Ryan Flanigan then closed out the game with a strong two innings.

"It was a good team win. It was good to rebound. We came back and we had some energy and we played a lot better," Mason said. "That was more to the liking of the kind of ball I want us to play every night."

Despite a loss on Sunday in which Mason said the team looked "flat," the Paints are as hot right now as they've been all season.

The team has now won 8 of its last 10 games to make a push toward wild card contention.

At 23-27, Chillicothe is two games behind both Southern Illinois and Florence (both 25-25) for the final postseason berth - given that the playoffs are still a long ways away.

"You don't want to make every game a must-win situation when there's 47 left, but we talked as a team today and we told ourselves what we need to do and where we need to be," Mason said. "Everybody has an understanding of what my outlook is and what our goals are."

Perry Cunningham (3-4, 5.37 ERA) starts for the Paints today against the Miners Griffin Bailey (0-0, 2.84) who will make his first start of the season.