Stars shutout Diamond Jaxx for fifth straight win

By Aaron Morse

Mark Rogers (1-1), Jim Henderson, and Robert Hinton combined to shutout the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (4-9) Wednesday afternoon as the Huntsville Stars (9-4) clinched a series victory, knocking off West Tenn. by a final score of 7-0.

Rogers earned his first win of the young season by going five innings, scattering five hits, walking two and striking out four.

The Stars got on the board against Diamond Jaxx starter Mauricio Robles (1-1) in the third. Anderson Machado started things off with a double down the right field line. New catcher Martin Maldonado, just called up from Brevard County, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Machado to third. A wild pitch from Robles allowed Machado to score.

That’d be all the runs the Stars needed, but the offense tacked on a few more anyway. In the top of the fourth, Zelous Wheeler hit a double to the right field wall. Then Taylor Green did what he does better than anyone else in the Southern League, he doubled to drive in Wheeler. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Machado grounded in to a fielder’s choice to drive in Green.

With one out in the sixth, Lee Haydel tripled to right field. With the infield in, Machado hit a little blooper that fell on the edge of the infield dirt to extend the lead to 4-0.

A bunch of walks and a Lorenzo Cain RBI single in the top of the 9th inning tacked on three more runs to give the Stars a 7-0 lead, and that’s how the game would end.

A bunch of Stars had big days. Wheeler went 3-4 with 2 runs scored, while Machado went 2-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored. Meanwhile Haydel, fresh from a day off, went 2-4 with 2 runs scored. Cain got two hits to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, which ties the Stars record for longest hitting streak to begin a season. Green tallied a couple of hits and his RBI was his 13th of the year, tops in the Southern League.

The victory was a season-high fifth consecutive win for the Stars and they’re back in action Thursday night. Michael Bowman (2-0) will be on the mound. The Stars Radio Network team will have the call beginning at 6:50pm Central Time with the Window World Pre-Game Show. First pitch is at 7:05.