Opening Night a great one as the Stars win easily over Jacksonville

By Aaron Morse

The 2010 home opener for the Huntsville Stars (4-2) was their best all-around performance of the year as they knocked off the Jacksonville Suns (2-4) by a final score of 7-1 on Wednesday.

Amaury Rivas (1-0) went five solid innings, surrendering only one run while striking out four to pick up his first win of the year. Meanwhile, the Stars jumped on Jacksonville starter Elih Villanueva right away in the bottom half of the first.

Lorenzo Cain started things off with a single up the gut. Brett Lawrie followed that up with a walk. One out later Jonathan Lucroy legged out an infield single to load the bases. That’s when Taylor Green continued his hot hitting with a 2-RBI double. Chris Errecart followed that up with a sacrifice fly and before you could say “Joe Davis” the Stars had a 3-0 lead.

An Errecart RBI single in the third plated Lucroy to extend the lead to 4-0. But the Suns got a run back in the top of the fourth thanks to a Mark Saccomanno RBI triple. It could have been worse but a tremendous double play got the Stars out of the jam. A Brandon Tripp fly ball to left field with a runner on third was caught by Lee Haydel, who fired the ball home to double up Saccomanno and end the inning.

Then the Stars’ offense, which has been on fire as of late got that run back right away in the bottom half of the frame. And it was Taylor Green who delivered the RBI base-hit as he finished the night 2-5 with 3 RBI. He played Cain, who finished the night 3-5 with two runs scored.

The Stars would put the game out of reach in the sixth inning thanks to in-part to a lead-off Caleb Gindl homer to dead center. With runners on first and second with one away, Lucroy attempted to steal third, the throw was not in time, but third baseman Matt Dominguez attempted to nail Errecart hustling to second on the play. The throw got away allowing Lucroy to score. Lucroy had another huge day in the win. The catcher went 3-5 with 3 runs scored.

Another outstanding performance from the Stars bullpen held down the lead. Jim Henderson went three shut-out innings and Robert Hinton finished things off in the ninth.

The Stars take to the field against the Suns at The Joe again Thursday night at 7pm central time. The pre-game show gets started at 6:45pm on AM 1450/92.9 FM WTKI and www.huntsvillestars.com. Alex Periard (0-1, 3.00 ERA) will be on the mound.