Stars pull off dramatic comeback win

By Aaron Morse

Brett Lawrie hit a two-out, two-RBI double and the Huntsville Stars (27-24, 60-61) scored seven runs in the sixth inning to rally from a five run deficit on their way to a 9-7 victory over the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (24-27, 63-57) Monday afternoon.

The victory made a winner out of Wily Peralta (1-1) who went six innings, giving up six runs (three earned) on seven hits. He walked one and struck-out seven.

The 21-year old right-hander had to work around some shaky Stars defense in the first inning. With one out, Johan Limonta doubled sharply down the right field line. Peralta got Alex Liddi to ground right back to the mound; he had Limonta caught dead to rights between second and third but his throw to second was dropped by shortstop Andy Machado. That allowed Limonta to go to third and everybody was safe.

Then he was hit with some bad luck as a Carlos Peguero chopper up the middle was hit so slowly that no play was available for Machado to make. The infield single drove in Limonta and West Tenn grabbed the early 1-0 lead. Scott Savastano followed with a grounder that Machado booted, loading the bases with only one down. The Stars paid for their bad defense as Joe Dunigan singled in two runs to extend the West Tenn lead to 3-0.

West Tennessee tacked on an insurance run in the top of the second on a two-out RBI single from Liddi.

However the Stars were able to get that run back in the bottom half of the frame when Taylor Green doubled in Drew Anderson, who’d drawn a lead-off walk.

Peralta and his counterpart Jarrett Grube were lights out for the next three innings before the Diamond Jaxx struck again in the sixth. With one out Joe Dunigan reached on an infield single. Bonilla followed with his second homer of the afternoon to extend the advantage to 6-1.

It was not Peralta’s best outing but the Stars made him a winner thanks to their epic comeback in the bottom of the sixth. Lee Haydel provided the spark Huntsville needed with a perfect bunt single down the third base line. Brett Lawrie followed with a double to the left field corner. That’s when the Z-man, Zelous Wheeler singled home both runners to cut the deficit to 6-3. A Drew Anderson double put runners at second and third with still nobody out. It also chased Grube from the game as the Diamond Jaxx brought in Wes Littleton. He was greeted by a Chris Nowak chopper to short that Carlos Triunfel mishandled, allowing everyone to be safe as the Stars cut the lead to 6-4. Littleton walked Taylor Green to load the bases. His control continued to escape him as he walked Andy Machado and Caleb Gindl as well and all of a sudden the game was tied at six. Nick Hill entered the game and struck-out two batters before Lawrie hacked at the first pitch and doubled in two runs to give the Stars an 8-6 lead.

Robert Hinton tossed a scoreless seventh, but Michael Fiers gave up a homer to Bonilla in the eighth to cut the Stars’ lead to one. Huntsville responded immediately in the bottom half of the frame when Lee Haydel hit a sacrifice fly to score Gindl from third.

The 9-7 lead held up as Jeremy Jeffress nailed down his second save of the year with a scoreless ninth inning.

The win moves Huntsville to within 3.5 games of the Wild Card lead. They have an off day Tuesday before taking on the Birmingham Barons on Wednesday. Michael Bowman will be on the mound and you can catch all the action on the Stars Radio Network.