Stars shutout by Smokies

By Aaron Morse

Amaury Rivas tossed 6.2 innings of solid baseball, but the Huntsville Stars (27-32) provided no run support as they fell 3-0 to the Tennessee Smokies (35-23) Tuesday night.

Tennessee would get all the runs they needed in the bottom half of the first. Tony Campana walked to lead-off the inning. One out later Ty Wright hit a deep fly to left that just got over the wall for a 2-0 Smokies lead. With two away, the Smokies strung together four consecutive singles, including a RBI base-hit off the bat of Josh Vitters to score Robinson Chirinos. The inning could have gotten worse, but on a Tony Thomas single to right, Caleb Gindl gunned down Brandon Guyer at the plate to end the frame.

Chris Carpenter of the Smokies retired the first 10 hitters he faced before Lorenzo Cain legged out an infield single in the fourth. He stole second and moved to third on a ground-out. Cain was left stranded when Zelous Wheeler grounded out to end the inning.

Lee Haydel drew a two-out walk in the fifth but was immediately caught trying to steal.

Brett Lawrie smacked a two-out single in the sixth and would be left stranded when Cain grounded out.

The Stars got a great scoring opportunity in the seventh against Carpenter. Caleb Gindl started things off with a single to left. He immediately stole second to put a man in scoring position with nobody out. After Zelous Wheeler struck-out, the Smokies replaced Carpenter with the lefty Ryan Buchter.

Taylor Green hit a hard shot to deep left off Buchter that Ty Wright chased down for the second out of the inning. Steffan Wilson followed with a pop-out and the Stars were denied again.

Still down 3-0, the Stars made one last run at the game in the ninth. With one away, Cain legged out his second infield single of the day and advanced to second on a throwing error. Gindl drew a walk and the Stars brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Zelous Wheeler. Wheeler hit a grounder in the hole at short that Marwin Gonzalez chased down. He threw to second base to just barely get the diving Gindl for the second out of the inning.

With runners at the corners, Taylor Green grounded into a force-out to end the game.

Rivas (5-4) went 6.2 innings, giving up six hits and three runs. He walked two and struck-out five. Five of the six hits he surrendered came in the first inning.

Carpenter (5-2) was brilliant as he went 6.1 innings, scattering three hits, walking one and striking-out six.

Buchter picked up his eighth hold of the year by going 1.2 innings and David Cales pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

With the loss, the Stars fall to 8.5 games back of the Smokies in the north division. They look to take the finale and the series on Wednesday. Josh Butler will be on the mound. First pitch is at 6:15 pm central time.