Stars earn comeback win over Smokies

By Aaron Morse

Andy Machado lined a pitch past Smokies’ shortstop Marwin Gonzalez and the Huntsville Stars (27-31) scored four runs in the eighth inning on their way to a 6-4 win over the Tennessee Smokies (34-23) Monday night.

It was Tennessee getting on the board in the bottom of the first against Stars’ starter Mark Rogers. Back-to-back singles by Tony Campana and Marwin Gonzalez put runners on first and second with nobody out. They pulled off a double steal and Rogers was in all sorts of trouble. He managed to strike-out team RBI leader Ty Wright for the first out of the inning. Rogers got Blake Lalli to hit a slow chopper to short which Zelous Wheeler booted. Campana scored on the play and the Smokies had runners at the corners with only one down. A RBI ground-out off the bat of Robinson Chirinos made it 2-0 Smokies.

Huntsville loaded the bases with only one away in the second inning. However Smokies’ starter Craig Muschko struck-out two straight batters to get out of the jam unscathed.

In the top of the third, bad defense gave the Stars a run. Brett Lawrie hit a grounder to third that Josh Vitters threw wild to first. Muschko tried to pick him off like he had in the first inning. The throw was wild though, and Lawrie scampered around to third. A Lorenzo Cain ground-out drove home Lawrie to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Tennessee smacked back-to-back singles to start the third against Rogers. Lalli’s single sent Wright to third base and Chirinos picked up his second RBI of the evening with a sacrifice fly to center.

Rogers went five plus innings, giving up three runs (two earned), on six hits. He only walked one while striking out four.

Facing a 3-1 hole, the Stars chipped away in the sixth. Caleb Gindl struck-out his first two times up, but he singled to lead-off the frame. A hit-and-run ground-out off the bat of Zelous Wheeler advanced Gindl to second. With two away, Steffan Wilson drove a ball to center that Campana attempted to catch on a dive. It got past him and Gindl scored to make the score 3-2.

Muschko went six innings, scattering six hits while giving up two runs, one of which was earned. He walked one and struck-out eight Stars.

The Smokies took a two-run lead for the third time in the game thanks to a Tony Thomas solo homer in the seventh against Stars’ reliever Jim Henderson.

The Stars’ big eighth innings started with one away when Gindl singled to left. Wheeler hit a chopper to third that Russ Canzler had go off his glove into shallow left field. Gindl went from first to third on the play, which was ruled a single. Taylor Green hit a single that bounced over the head of Lalli at first base to score Gindl and cut the Smokies’ lead to 4-3. With runners at the corners Wilson came up big again as he doubled to center to tie the game. That was the end of the day for reliever Jake Muyco who went 1.1 innings out of the ‘pen.

New pitcher Luke Sommer struck-out Chuckie Caufield and intentionally walked Dayton Buller. Andy Machado, pinch hitting for Henderson, hit a hard one hopper that scooted under the glove of Gonzalez, scoring Green and Wilson. It was ruled an error, but Machado picks up the most productive 0-1 of the Stars’ season.

Robert Hinton tossed an inning of shutout ball for his second hold of the year, and the Brandon Kintzler-less Stars got a save from Donovan Hand. Hand threw a scoreless ninth for his first save in 2010.

Henderson (2-0) worked two innings for the win while Muyco (1-2) picked up the loss.

Green, Gindl, and Wilson all had multi-hit games, with Green going 3-5 and Wilson driving in two runs.

With the win the Stars move to 7.5 games back of Tennessee in the north division.

Amaury Rivas (5-3, 2.64) takes the mound Tuesday as the Stars look to clinch the series victory. First pitch is at 6:15pm central time and can be heard on www.huntsvillestars.com.