Stars hold on, knock off Barons in game one of double header

By Aaron Morse

Everyone in the Huntsville Stars’ (23-23) lineup tallied a hit and a late Chris Errecart home run was the difference as they got back to .500 with a 6-5 victory over the Birmingham Barons (14-31) in game one of Thursday’s double header.

The Stars jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the third. Drew Anderson, just assigned to Huntsville from Nashville yesterday, doubled to lead-off the frame. Two outs later, Lorenzo Cain continued his hot hitting by singling him home. The base knock gave Cain an eight-game hitting streak.

Huntsville got some help from one of the major leaguers currently rehabbing with the squad in the fourth when Mat Gamel singled with one away. With two outs, Caleb Gindl hit a chopper to the right side, pitcher Justin Edwards was late covering the bag and Gindl arrived safely. The break gave the Stars new life and Anderson took advantage as he singled to left to drive in Gamel.

The Barons would cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the fifth against Stars’ starter Michael Bowman. Cole Armstrong doubled to start things off. Two outs later John Shelby III delivered a clutch RBI triple that Lee Haydel nearly caught up against the wall out in left-center field.

But the Stars’ offense exploded in the bottom half. Martin Maldonado hit a ringing double which was quickly followed by a Cain single to center. With runners at the corners, Haydel drew a walk to load the bases. That’s when Brett Lawrie came up big with a 2-RBI single to extend the lead to 4-1 and take-over the team lead in RBI. The base hit chased Edwards from the game. New pitcher Andrew Dobies was victimized by a Zelous Wheeler single to right which drove home Haydel.

The Barons got one back in the top of the sixth on a two-out RBI single from Christian Marrero.

With the score 5-2, Errecart smacked a homer to left that extended the lead in the bottom of the sixth.

That long ball would turn out to be huge as the Barons tallied two runs off Bowman and one run off closer Brandon Kintzler in the top of the seventh. But Kintzler got Brent Morel to strike-out to end the game and earn his ninth save of the year. Bowman got the win to move to 4-4 while Edwards took the loss to fall to 2-2.

Cain, Anderson, and Lawrie had the biggest days at the plate as Cain went 3-4 with a run scored and a RBI. Meanwhile Anderson went 2-3 with a run scored and a RBI as well. Lawrie went 1-4, but his one hit got him 2 RBI.
The win breaks a three-game losing streak for the Stars and moves them back to five games behind the Smokies in the North Division.