Stars edged by BayBears

By Aaron Morse

Collin Cowgill drove in all three Mobile runs including a go-ahead two-run home run in the seventh inning as the BayBears (34-25, 70-57) came from behind to knock off the Huntsville Stars (30-30, 63-67) by a final score of 3-2 Thursday night.

Huntsville took the early lead in the first inning against Mobile starter Ryan Cook. With one out, Brett Lawrie drew a walk. He proceeded to swipe his 30th base of the year and Drew Anderson, the franchise’s all-time leader in career doubles, doubled him home.

The put Cook on the ropes again in the second as the Stars got runners on second and third with one out. A pop-out and a strike-out ended the threat though.

Anderson got things going in the third with his second double of the night. Zelous Wheeler followed with a RBI single and it was 2-0 Stars.

The bottom of the fourth was noteworthy due to a spectacular over the shoulder catch from Caleb Gindl in deep center field to rob Taylor Harbin of an extra base hit.

Mobile finally got to Huntsville starter Amaury Rivas in the fifth as Ryan Cook smacked a one-out single to left. Then with two away, Cowgill doubled to center and advanced to third on the throw to the plate as Cook scored. Rivas walked the next batter but struck-out Konrad Schmidt to end the inning.

That ended up being his last frame of work as the right-hander went five innings, giving up one run on four hits. He walked four, matching his season high in that category and struck-out six in the no-decision.

Mobile burned reliever Jim Henderson (4-5) in the seventh. With one out, Sean Coughlin singled to right. After Henderson struck-out Evan Frey, Cowgill struck again, this time with a two-run home run to give Mobile the 3-2 lead.

On the bright side for the Stars, reliever Jeremy Jeffress followed Henderson in to the game and struck-out all four batters he faced.

The Stars nearly rallied to tie the game in the ninth as Andy Machado got things going with a single to right. After Lee Haydel bunted him to second, Lawrie hit a hot smash to short. Harbin made a nice leaping grab and threw back to second to double off Machado and end the game.

Huntsville left nine men stranded in the contest and was 2-9 with men in scoring position. Anderson and catcher Anderson De La Rosa tallied multi-hit games.
With the loss, the Stars remain 4.5 back of the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx in the Wild Card race with 10 games to play. Huntsville looks to bounce back Friday night as they send Wily Peralta to the hill in game two of the four game set with Mobile. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. central time and all the action can be heard only on www.huntsvillestars.com.