Stars Win Second Straight

Connor Shreve

The Huntsville Stars (31-37) received a stellar pitching performance from its ace and hung on despite a late Montgomery rally for a three run win on Friday night 9-6. Friday night’s win evened the season series between the two teams at 4-4.

Jeremy Hall (4-3 2.97) turned in to his own worst enemy in the second inning, allowing Huntsville to get on the score board first. A leadoff walk to Zelous Wheeler was the beginning of his unraveling. One out later, a balk allowed the Stars shortstop to advance in to scoring position. Chuckie Caufield sent a line drive in to the outfield to pick up an RBI. After advancing to second base on the throw, Caufield moved to third on a passed ball charged to Biscuits catcher Craig Albernaz. Hall followed with a miscue of his own, a wild pitch that scored Caufield. Dayton Buller who witnessed both the passed ball and wild pitch from the batters box followed with a walk to first but Hall did force a fly out to end the inning.

In the next inning, Huntsville again capitalized on the struggles of Hall. With Brett Lawrie on second and two outs, Wheeler launched his sixth home run of the year, a monster shot to left center field that Montgomery left fielder Leslie Anderson didn’t even bother chasing. Steffan Wilson and Taylor Green both took the worst of Hall’s problems; they were plunked with errant pitches in back to back at bats to set the table for Caufield who tagged his second home run in as many games to make it a seven run lead after three innings.

Montgomery (38-28) center fielder Rashad Eldridge led off the fourth with a single and did score but Amaury Rivas held the Biscuits to just that one run in his five complete innings. Rivas bounced back from a loss to Carolina in his last outing and struck out eight over five innings Friday while allowing only four hits and walking two. It is Rivas’ sixth with of the year, which ties Michael Bowman for the team lead, and his first in nearly a month. Huntsville’s ace pitched eight innings at home May 18 to lead the Stars to a one run decision over the Tennessee Smokies.

Rivas’ Counterpart Jeremy Hall entered the game with a miniscule 2.31 ERA but couldn’t find the strike zone often enough. He walked four batters and hit two in his 2 2/3 innings. A passed ball, a balk and a dropped foul ball all contributed to Hall’s troubles. Huntsville plated seven runs against Hall, six of them earned, while only connecting for three hits. Hall walked four and struck out one.

A hit batter and an error helped add to a four run seventh inning for the Biscuits. Huntsville, leading by seven runs at the end of the third inning, saw that lead shrink to three heading in to the final inning having given up five runs in the seventh and eighth combined.

Stars outfielder Chuck Caufield matched the Stars high RBI mark for the season with six. He went 4-4 and scored two runs. Taylor Green set the season record on May 31st in a game against Mobile at Joe Davis Stadium. Caufield is 6-13 over his last three games and has 8 runs batted in over that period.

Game four of the current series between the Visiting Biscuits and Stars starts Saturday at 6:00 p.m. (CDT) at Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville, AL. Jake McGee (2-40 3.65) will toe the rubber for Montgomery. The Stars will send Josh Butler (0-3 5.68) to the mound.