Stars drop game one of Saturday’s double dip

By Aaron Morse

Anthony Vazquez (1-2) dominated on the mound as the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (23-24, 62-54) knocked off the Huntsville Stars (24-23, 57-60) by a final score of 4-1 in game one of Saturday’s double header.

Vazquez went 6.2 innings, giving up only four hits and a lone run while striking out six. A big key for Vazquez was that he did not walk anyone.

Meanwhile after a routine first inning, Michael Bowman (8-10) surrendered an unearned run the very next frame.

With one away in the second, Nate Tenbrink doubled to center. Then Guillermo Quiroz gave the ball a ride to deep right that Chuckie Caufield dropped for an error. Tenbrink scored on the play to give West Tenn the 1-0 lead.

Bowman settled down and tossed two straight scoreless innings. The long ball got to him in the fifth though. Joe Dunigan led-off with a single up the middle. The ever-dangerous Carlos Triunfel followed with a bomb to left and West Tenn extended their lead to 3-0.

A Brandon Haveman single followed by a deep fly-out from Matthew Lawson signaled the end of the day for Bowman. The right-hander went four and a third, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits. He walked one and struck-out six.

Lucas Luetge entered and got the Stars out of the inning. He would give up a solo shot to Carlos Peguero in the sixth though as West Tenn took a 4-0 advantage.

The Stars finally got to Vazquez in the last half inning, the bottom of the seventh. Zelous Wheeler started things with a single to left. Two outs later Andy Machado doubled home Wheeler a ball that Joe Dunigan misplayed to cut the deficit to 4-1. But that’d be it for the Stars as Wes Littleton entered and got pinch hitter Taylor Green to pop out to third to end the game for his third save of the season.

Machado tallied the only multi-hit game for the Stars as he went 2-3 with a RBI. Michael Fiers made his first appearance since coming off the DL and tossed an inning of scoreless ball. Haveman and Tenbrink each smacked two base hits for the Diamond Jaxx.