By Aaron Morse
Taylor Green drove in three runs and Lee Haydel drove in two as the Huntsville Stars (3-2) benefited from four Chattanooga Lookouts (2-3) errors to prevail 7-4 on Monday.
The first three innings went by in no time as the Stars’ Chris Cody (1-0) and the Lookouts’ Jesus Castillo (0-1) were in complete control. But in the top of the fourth the Stars took the 1-0 lead as Caleb Gindl reached on a grounder that snuck under the glove of second baseman Jaime Pedroza for an error. With two outs, it appeared Castillo was going to get out of the jam when Taylor Green hit a sky-high pop-up into shallow right center field. But the Lookouts’ fielders lost the ball in the lights and it dropped in for a RBI triple.
In the 5th, the Stars got to Castillo again as Haydel started things off with a single. He stole second and one out later scored on a Lorenzo Cain hot-shot that deflected off the glove of shortstop Dee Gordon for an error. But the Lookouts finally pushed a run across the plate in the bottom half of the frame against Cody. Corey Smith started things off with a double, moved to third on bunt single from Gordon, and scored on an Elian Herrera sacrifice fly. Cody would get out of the inning suffering no further damage, but that would be all for him in the game.
The Stars looked like they had the game well in-hand after they scored one in the sixth and two in the seventh to take a 5-1 lead.
The sixth inning featured yet another error from the Lookouts as Zelous Wheeler hit a grounder to second base with two outs and two on. Pedroza had it go off his glove for his third error of the game, allowing Jonathan Lucroy to come around and score. Then in the seventh Green doubled in Lucroy and Cain.
But the Lookouts battled back against the Stars’ bullpen. After scoring one in the seventh on a RBI ground-out from Herrera, the Lookouts mounted their biggest challenge in the eighth.
Andrew Lambo started things off with a double, and two outs later scored on a Scott Van Slyke single. After Smith walked, Gordon doubled home Van Slyke to make it a 5-4 game and put the go-ahead run in scoring position.
At that point Brandon Kintzler entered the game to try and bail the Stars out of the jam. He got a break when the Lookouts’ Herrera tried to surprise the Stars with a bunt, which popped straight up in the air to Kintzler for the final out of the inning.
The Stars added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth thanks to a two-RBI single from Haydel and Kintzler nailed down his second save of the year as he retired the Lookouts in order in the bottom half of the frame.
The Stars have an off day on Tuesday and return to Joe Davis Stadium for their home opener against Jacksonville on Wednesday night at 7:00pm Central Time. That game can be heard on 1450 AM/92.9 FM WTKI, http://www.huntsvillestars.com and all throughout the Stars Radio Network.
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