Stars shine in late innings against Birmingham to sweep double header

By Aaron Morse

You like epic comebacks? Oh, we have some epic comebacks.

The Huntsville Stars (15-10) scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning on Monday to defeat the Birmingham Barons (6-18) by a final score of 5-4 in game one of their double header.

Then they did it again in game two. Except this time they only needed two runs in the top of the seventh as they prevailed 4-3.

But let’s go back to the beginning. The Barons have struggled all year, but they sent their undisputed ace, and Southern League ERA leader Charles Shirek to the mound for game one. Not surprisingly, he was his usual dominating self for the first five innings. Meanwhile the Stars responded with former first round draft pick Mark Rogers. The Barons got to Rogers for one run in the first without recording a hit.

Rogers hit John Shelby III to start the inning. Shelby III was able to steal second base. With one down, Jim Gallagher drew a walk. The aggressive Barons proceeded to pull off a double steal to put two runners in scoring position. Brent Morel grounded out to second base to score Shelby III, but that would be the extent of the damage in the first inning.

Zelous Wheeler nearly hit a homer off Shirek in the second inning, but a leaping catch by right fielder Salvador Sanchez took it away.

Rogers matched Shirek pitch for pitch until he ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth. Lee Cruz started things off with a ringing double to left. Then Rogers was a victim of some bad luck as a Sanchez “Baltimore Chop” bounced over the head of Steffan Wilson and into right field. That scored Cruz and the lead was 2-0 for the Barons.

Then the Barons played some small ball. First, catcher Chase Blackwood bunted Sanchez over to second base. That was followed by a quick swipe of third. Manager Ever Magallanes went deep in to his bag of tricks and pulled out the old suicide squeeze. Justin Fuller executed it to perfection, and the Barons had a 3-0 lead.

After five complete, things didn’t look so great for the Stars, as they found themselves down 3-0 in a 7-inning game.

But that all changed in the top of the sixth. Lee Haydel, who has filled in nicely for the injured Lorenzo Cain in the lead-off spot, laced a double to right to start things off. Then Brett Lawrie hit a seeing-eye single up the middle to plate Haydel and just like that Shirek had given up only his third run of the season. Down 3-1, the Stars kept the pressure on Shirek when with one away, Wheeler singled to right. That put runners on the corners for Taylor Green.

Manager Mike Guerrero decided to play some small ball himself as he sent Wheeler with two strikes on Green. Green struck-out, but the throw to second base got away from Fuller and Lawrie came in from third to cut the deficit to 3-2. Shirek would get out of the inning without any further damage, but the Stars had gotten within striking distance.

Unfortunately a solo homer from Morel in the top half of the seventh seemed to once again put the game at more than arm’s reach.

Then the Barons made a bit of a tactical mistake, they took out Shirek in favor of Miguel Socolovich (2-2) in the bottom half of the seventh.

Wilson led-off the inning and drew a walk. One out later Martin Maldonado also drew a walk. Then Haydel continued his phenomenal double header with a double to right field to score Wilson. But a Lawrie strikeout put the Stars down to their final out.

That’s when Caleb Gindl worked his magic. Gindl, who had the game-winning hit just two days ago, singled up the middle to plate both runners and give the Stars their first lead of the game.

That would be more than enough for Mark Willinsky (1-0), who after giving up the solo homer in the sixth out of the ‘pen, slammed the door in the bottom half of the seventh to earn his first win of the year.

But the great night for the Stars was just getting started.

In game two of the double header, the Barons once again jumped out to the early lead. This time against spot starter Mike Jones, the Barons scored three in the bottom half of the first inning.

Meanwhile, the Stars’ offense was once again quiet early, this time being shut-down by the younger brother of Chiefs’ QB Matt Cassel: Justin Cassel. They finally got to him in the fifth inning thanks in-part to the newest Star: Brent Brewer.

Wilson started the inning by drawing a walk. Brewer, who had already doubled in his first Stars’ at-bat, singled to move Wilson down to second base. A nice sacrifice bunt from Sean McCraw moved both runners up 90 feet. Then Cassel uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Wilson to score. Haydel, who had such a big impact in game one, smacked another double to score Brewer and the deficit all of a sudden was only 3-2. But Haydel, for reasons beyond anyone watching’s understanding, attempted to steal third with Lawrie at the plate and was thrown out by a mile. Lawrie would then strike-out to end the inning.

Robert Hinton relieved Jones to start the fifth inning. Jones, in his second start of the year, really settled down after the rough first inning and gave the Stars enough so they were able to stay within range of the Barons. But Hinton immediately ran into trouble as Gallagher doubled with one away. A single from Morel put runners at the corners.

Then what was basically the turning point of the game occurred. Christian Marrero hit a fly ball to center that Haydel caught for the second out. Gallagher attempted to score on the play, and Haydel’s throw had him beat by a few steps. Unfortunately the ball tipped off the top of McCraw’s glove and went all the way to the backstop where Hinton picked it up. Meanwhile, McCraw got absolutely run over on the play. It appeared that the Barons had a much needed insurance run, but the Stars appealed to third base and it was ruled that Gallagher had left the bag too early. The inning was over, and the Stars had officially turned their fourth double play in the past four innings of the game. In-between innings, manager Magallanes and Gallagher got the boot for vehemently arguing the call with home plate umpire Gerard Ascani.

The Stars would go down quietly in the sixth, but rose again in the seventh to complete yet another amazing comeback. This time the Barons kept their starter in to begin the inning, as Cassel had had a nice outing. But an error would open the floodgates as Chris Errecart hit a grounder to short that snuck under the glove of Greg Paiml. Wilson hit a grounder to second and they got the force on Errecart, but a hustling Wilson would beat the relay throw to first.

Then Wilson really showed some hustle. In the gutsiest move of the year, he stole second base. It was his first stolen base attempt of the year, and luckily for the Stars he was successful. Not only that, the throw went into center so Wilson was also able to advance to third on the play. Cassel walked Brewer and his day was done.

In came Joe Torres, who immediately got the second out of the inning when he got pinch hitter Brett Dowdy to pop out to short. For the second consecutive game, the Stars were down to their final out. Torres got two strikes on Haydel, but what was a theme for the day continued as Haydel came up big once again with a slap-shot down the left field line to score Wilson, tie the game, and advance Brewer to third. That would be all for Torres and Tyson Corley entered the game. Lawrie was able to beat out an infield single to score Brewer and the Stars took the 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.

Mike McClendon (1-0) worked two shut-out innings out of the bullpen to pick up the win while Cassel (0-2) suffered the hard-luck loss.

Haydel had a huge day at the plate, going 5-8 in the double header and driving in three runs while scoring two of his own.

With the sweep, the Stars move to within three games of the Tennessee Smokies in the North Division.

The Stars head back home to Joe Davis Stadium for a five game set beginning on Tuesday against the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. The Stars took 3 of 5 when they went to Jackson earlier in the year. Michael Bowman (2-2, 4.58) will be on the mound for game one, which starts at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. Join us on http://www.huntsvillestars.com for the Window World Pre-Game Report beginning at 6:45.