Stars move to within a game of first with win over Braves

By Aaron Morse

Drew Anderson and Chris Nowak drove in two runs each and the Huntsville Stars’ (17-15, 50-52) pitching staff was dominant on their way to a 6-0 victory over the Mississippi Braves (15-17, 45-55) Wednesday night.

It was the second consecutive excellent outing from Stars’ right-hander Michael Bowman. This time he was rewarded with a win. Bowman battled with his control all night, walking four batters. But he held the Braves scoreless in his six innings of work. Bowman only surrendered two hits, both to Mauro Gomez, and struck-out four.

His counterpart was 19-year old top prospect Julio Teheran, making his double-A debut. Teheran also had to battle his control early, but was unable to work around his issues.

Anderson barely missed a home run in the second inning with a double off the wall in right. Nowak followed by singling him home to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

In the third inning, Bowman did some great work with the stick, fouling off pitch after pitch and finally working a 12-pitch walk. That seemed to rattle Teheran, who walked Caleb Gindl, Zelous Wheeler, and Anderson as well. The Anderson walk brought home Bowman to extend the Stars’ advantage to 2-0. Teheran caught a break when Nowak hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

The Stars chased Teheran from the game in the fifth. Brett Lawrie led-off with a single up the middle. He was able to steal second base despite the throw beating him there as Tyler Pastornicky missed the tag. Gindl drew another walk, as did Anderson to load the bases. Nowak drove in Lawrie with a well-hit sacrifice fly to left. Everyone else moved up 90 feet as well and Gindl scored when Taylor Green rapped a single to right. That was it for Teheran as Benino Pruneda entered, only to give up a a RBI single to Lee Haydel. When the dust settled the Stars had a 5-0 lead.

They’d tack on one more in the eighth on back-to-back doubles from Wheeler and Anderson. Drew nearly hit two homers on the day but had to settle a 2-3 night with two runs scored, two doubles, two RBI, and two walks. Anderson De La Rosa, Lawrie, and Haydel all had multi-hit games as well.

The Stars’ bullpen was excellent as Nick Green tossed two scoreless innings while Eddie Morlan worked the ninth to finish off the Braves.

For Huntsville it’s their fifth shutout of the year thrown by their pitching staff. With the win, combined with Tennessee and Carolina losing, the Stars sit all alone in second place, one game back of the Smokies in the north division.

The Stars look to win game two of the five game set Thursday night as they send Mark Rogers (4-7, 3.68 ERA) to the mound. First pitch is at 7:00 p.m. and can be heard only on www.huntsvillestars.com.