Stars take early lead, but fall to Braves

By Aaron Morse

The Huntsville Stars (22-21) got a tremendous performance from Mark Rogers, but blew a 3-0 lead as they fell 4-3 to the Mississippi Braves (21-22) Saturday night.

Rogers walked a season low one batter while striking out six in what was arguably his best outing of the season. The Stars would get him some run support right away.

With one out in the first inning, Caleb Gindl was hit by a pitch. Brett Lawrie followed that up with a single up the gut. A Zelous Wheeler RBI double made it 1-0 Stars. Friday night’s hero Chris Errecart followed that up with a RBI grounder to plate Lawrie and extend the advantage to 2-0.

The lone difficult inning for Rogers came in the bottom of the second. An error, a single and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. But Rogers caught a break when Alejandro Machado lined a shot right back to the mound. Rogers caught it and doubled off the runner at second base. He would get the next hitter to ground-out and got out of the jam unscathed.

Rogers helped his own cause in the top of the fourth. With one away Chuckie Caufield reached on a bunt single to extend his hitting streak to six games. With two away, Martin Maldonado drew a walk. That’s when Rogers laced a single to center to drive home Caufield.

After Rogers departed, Mark Willinsky took over and worked a very quick sixth inning.

But the Braves got two runs back in the bottom of the seventh on a couple of singles, and some shaky Stars defense. A Juan Gonzalez single plated Donell Linares, who had also singled, and the Stars’ lead was 3-1. Then things got crazy. With runners at the corners and two down, Alex Romero hit a grounder to Andy Machado. Machado’s throw to Lawrie at second base was wide and got away. One run scored, but Cody Johnson was gunned down at the plate by Chris Errecart. Johnson was immediately ejected from the game as he slammed his helmet down in anger. Braves’ manager Phillip Wellman would also be ejected. When the dust cleared, the Stars held on to a razor-thin one-run lead.

Huntsville nearly got an insurance run in the top of the eighth, but Wheeler was thrown out at the plate trying to score on an Andy Machado fly ball to end the inning.

Robert Hinton relieved Willinsky in the eighth inning and ran into trouble. He gave up a single and hit a man with nobody out. But a failed sacrifice bunt allowed the Stars to get the lead runner at third. A Donell Linares 2-RBI double would give the Braves a 4-3 edge.

Hinton (0-2) took the loss while Juan Abreu (1-0) got the win for Mississippi. Lee Hyde worked a scoreless ninth for his fourth save of the year.

With the loss the Stars drop to four games back of the Smokies in the North Division. It also snaps their four-game winning streak. It’s also only the second time all year the Stars have lost when leading after six innings.

The Stars are back in action Sunday afternoon as they’ll send their ace Amaury Rivas (5-2, 2.05 ERA) to the mound. First pitch is at 2:05 pm Central Time. You can tune in on http://www.huntsvillestars.com.