Stars weather the weather, get third straight win

By Aaron Morse

After sitting through a rain delay that lasted two hours and 12 minutes, the Huntsville Stars (21-20) used an outstanding performance from Michael Bowman (3-4) to prevail 5-4 over the Mississippi Braves (20-21) Thursday night into Friday morning.

The Stars put runners on first and third with two away in the top of the first before the teams were called off the field due to the impending thunder storm. The delay forced the Braves to switch pitchers, Ryne Reynoso (0-1) replaced starter Richard Sullivan when the game resumed.

The Stars did not need to switch pitchers as Bowman had yet to throw a pitch in the game so rust would be at a minimum. That was certainly the case as he tossed six innings of one-hit ball, walking two and striking out five.

Chuck Caufield got the Stars on the board in the top of the fourth with a solo homer off Reynoso. It’s the first long ball of the year for Caufield.

Huntsville would get some much-needed insurance in the top of the seventh. With one away Martin Maldonado singled up the middle. Scott Krieger pinch hit for Bowman and came up big with a single to center for his second hit as a Huntsville Star. Back to the top of the order the Stars went and Lorenzo Cain continued his excellent season with a single to left to drive home Maldonado. Cain’s single chased Reynoso from the game. Relief pitcher Thomas Palica was greeted rather rudely by Brett Lawrie as the former first round pick smacked his league-leading seventh triple of the year, clearing the bases and extending the lead to 4-0. A Braves error allowed Lawrie to cross home to complete the scoring. When the dust cleared, the Stars had a 5-0 advantage.

Robert Hinton relieved Bowman for the bottom half of the seventh inning and got some help from Cain, who made a spectacular catch as he crashed into the wall 380 feet away from home plate on a ball hit by Mauro Gomez.

Hinton would run into trouble in the eighth inning as Randy Gress started things off for the Braves with a double to left. Two outs later, Hinton walked Alex Romero. A Donell Linares single drove in Gress and that was quickly followed by an Eric Duncan RBI single as well. With the lead cut to 5-2, manager Mike Guerrero brought in Nick Green to put out the fire. In his first appearance for the Stars this season, Green got some help from Chris Errecart. The first-baseman made a nice catch over the railing in foul territory on a pop-up to end the inning.

Green gave up a lead-off single in the bottom of the ninth. One out later, another single brought the tying run to the plate. That would be all for Green as Brandon Kintzler entered to try and finish off the victory. Kintzler would walk pinch-hitter Orlando Mercado to load the bases. But he would bounce back to strike-out Travis Jones on three straight pitches. Romero would single home Gress and Willie Cabrera, and the Stars found themselves only up 5-4.

With the tying and winning runs aboard, Kintzler got Linares to line out to Cain to secure his seventh save of the season.

Lawrie and Cain both had big days at the plate as Brett went 2-3 with a run scored and two driven in. Cain also had a couple of hits with a run scored and a RBI. Cain swiped his 10th base of the year, but not to be out-done; Lawrie stole two bags to take the team lead with 11. Meanwhile Caufield’s homer extended his hitting streak to four games.

The win pulls the Stars to within a half game of West Tennessee for the second place spot in the North Division. The Smokies also won Thursday, so Huntsville remains four games out of first.

The Stars are back on the air Friday night for game two of the five-game set with the Braves. Join us on the AM 1450/92.9 FM WTKI and the Stars Radio Network or www.huntsvillestars.com beginning at 6:50pm Central Time. Former first round pick Mark Rogers (2-3, 4.20 ERA) heads to the mound to take on Mississippi’s Mike Minor (1-3, 3.43 ERA).