Stars start second half splendidly

By Aaron Morse

Lorenzo Cain drove in four runs, Caleb Gindl drove in three, and the Huntsville Stars (1-0) survived five errors to start the second half of the season on the right foot as they beat the Jacksonville Suns (0-1) by a score of 7-6 Tuesday night.

Huntsville got on the board right away as Brett Lawrie continued his hot hitting with a double to right with nobody out in the first. After a Lorenzo Cain single put runners at the corners, Caleb Gindl hit the ball deep enough to the outfield that Lawrie was able to score.

But Jacksonville took advantage of some shaky control from Stars’ starter Michael Bowman in the bottom half of the frame. With one away, Osvaldo Martinez drew a walk. Bowman proceeded to hit the next batter with a pitch. However he managed to get Lee Mitchell to fly to left for the second out of the inning. Bowman’s control let him down again though; this time on a throw to first. Mark Saccomanno hit a grounder back to the mound that Bowman threw wide to first, allowing a run to score to tie the game.

The Stars gave Bowman some more offense in the top of the second. With one away the red hot Dayton Buller extended his hitting streak to eight games with a double to left. After Bowman bunted him to third, Brett Lawrie drew a walk. That’s when Cain delivered the big blow, a triple to deep center field Gindl singled him home and the Stars grabbed the 4-1 advantage.

Poor defense allowed the Suns to get one back in the bottom of the second. With one out Tim Torres singled to left. Suns’ starter Elih Villanueva attempted to bunt the runner over and managed to reach when Dayton Buller couldn’t handle the ball. A wild pitch combined with a throwing error by Buller allowed Torres to cross the plate to make the score 4-2.

Neither team would score again until the bottom of the fourth when Vinny Rottino took Bowman deep to cut the Stars’ lead to 4-3.

Cain and the Stars had the answer in the top of the fifth. With one away, Lee Haydel singled and Buller drew a walk. Bowman bunted the runners over at which point Villanueva (6-4) was removed from the game. The righty went 4.2 innings, surrendering six runs on nine hits while walking four and striking out one.

New pitcher Kyle Gunderson immediately walked Brett Lawrie to load the bases. Cain came through with a two-run single and the Stars extended their lead to 6-3.

Gindl continued his big day with a solo shot in the sixth off Gunderson as the Stars had a seemingly comfortable 7-3 edge.

Bowman (7-5) tossed five innings, giving up three runs, only one of which was earned, on three hits. He walked two and struck-out five in the winning effort.

Reliever Eddie Morlan gave up a one-out double to Rottino in the sixth. Rottino stole third and scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 7-4.

They made things really interesting in the seventh. Morlan surrendered a single and walk to start the inning. That prompted manager Mike Guerrero to call on Donovan Hand to get out of the inning. He got off to a good start when Lee Mitchell hit into a double play. Unfortunately, yet another Stars error allowed Saccomanno to reach second base and a run to score. Matt Dominguez drove him home and the Stars only had a 7-6 edge.

Jim Henderson tossed a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the year as the Stars survived the Suns’ repeated attempts at a rally. Despite five errors, Huntsville hung on to win their fifth in a row.

The Stars attempt to take game two of the series Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is at 12:05pm and can be heard only on www.huntsvillestars.com.