Stars salvage series finale with Biscuits

By Aaron Morse

Chuckie Caufield doubled in Drew Anderson in the sixth to break a 3-3 tie and the Huntsville Stars (30-29, 63-66) won on get away day Wednesday afternoon by a final score of 5-3 over the Montgomery Biscuits.

The Stars jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the first. With one away, Brett Lawrie drew a walk. He showed off his trademark aggressiveness with a stolen base, his 29th of the year. Zelous Wheeler singled to left to move Lawrie to third and put runners at the corners with one out. That’s when Drew Anderson nearly smacked a three-run homer as the ball went off the top of the right field wall. He settled for a two-RBI triple to give the Stars a 2-0 lead. Andy Machado hit a ball hard to center to score Anderson. Taylor Green struck-out to end the inning, a sign of things to come for the Stars.

In fact, between the first and sixth innings, Montgomery starter Alex Cobb (6-5) could not have been more dominating. He struck-out two in the second inning and sent the side down in order via the K in the third and fourth innings respectively.

Meanwhile, the Biscuits came back to tie the game. With one out in the third, Rashad Eldridge singled to left off Stars’ starter Mark Rogers. The hard throwing right-hander was able to get John Matulia to hit a tailor-made double play ball to second baseman Brett Lawrie. Lawrie’s feed to Wheeler was true, but Wheeler dropped the ball and everyone was safe. With two away, more bad luck hit Rogers as a shattered bat caused him to have to try field a slow roller while avoiding the sharp barrel. He successfully did the latter, but the ball squeaked past him for an infield single. At that point, Rogers walked in two runs and the Biscuits cut the score to 3-2 in favor of the Stars.

They got one more run in the fifth. With one out, Jose Ruiz singled to center. After a walk, Rogers struck-out Matt Spring for the second out of the inning. But Mike Folli delivered a clutch RBI single to center.

Rogers got a ground-out to end the inning and his night. The former first round pick went five innings, giving up three runs (one earned), on six hits. He walked four and struck-out eight.

Speaking of strike-outs Cobb sent down 13 Stars’ hitters via the K. However Huntsville got to him for the eventual winning run in the sixth. With one away, Drew Anderson doubled to left field. Cobb struck-out the next batter and then the Biscuits decided to intentionally walk Taylor Green to get to Caufield.

Big mistake. The Biscuit-killer laced a double to right center field to drive in Anderson and give the Stars a 4-3 lead.
The Stars tacked on an insurance run in the eighth thanks to a RBI double off the bat of Taylor Green.

Chris Cody (7-7) tossed two scoreless innings out of the bullpen to get the win. Michael Fiers finished things off for his first save of the year with two scoreless frames of his own.

Despite the win, the Stars remain 4.5 games back of the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx in the wild card race with 11 games to play. They head to Mobile to open a four game series Thursday. Amaury Rivas (11-6) will be on the mound. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. central time and all the action can be heard on the Stars Radio Network.