Stars salvage split of twin bill as Anderson rewrites the record books

By Aaron Morse

Drew Anderson set the Stars’ all time record for career doubles and his hit turned out to be the difference as the Huntsville Stars (25-23, 58-60) snuck by the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (23-25, 62-55) by a final score of 4-3 in game two of Saturday’s double header.

West Tenn took the early lead for the second game in a row on a Carlos Peguero RBI double in the second inning. This time though the Stars struck back in a big way. In the bottom of the frame, Chris Nowak, Taylor Green, and Andy Machado smacked back-to-back-to-back singles with one away. Up stepped Lee Haydel, who hit a chopper to second base. The Diamond Jaxx got the force at second, but Carlos Triunfel’s throw to first was low and got away. Two runs crossed the plate to give Huntsville the 2-1 edge. Dayton Buller followed with a clutch RBI single to extend the lead to 3-1.

The Diamond Jaxx chipped away against Stars’ starter Chris Cody. Matt Lawson led-off the third with a single to right. Nate Tenbrink followed with a single of his own and Lawson went corner to corner. One out later, Johan Limonta legged out a grounder as the Stars’ got the lead runner at second but no more. Lawson scored on the play to cut the lead to 3-2.

In the bottom of the frame, Zelous Wheeler doubled to center with one down. That’s when Drew Anderson hit his record-setting 72nd career double as a Huntsville Star, driving in Wheeler to provide some much needed insurance.

Back-to-back doubles off the bats of Leury Bonilla and Brandon Bantz in the fourth cut the Stars’ lead to a slim one run.

The Diamond Jaxx chased Cody from the game in the fifth thanks to two singles. But Robert Hinton (4-2) bailed the Stars out when he forced Scott Savastano to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Cody’s final line was 4.1 IP, 9 hits, three runs, all earned, no walks and six strike-outs.

Hinton tossed a scoreless sixth and Jeremy Jeffress nailed down his first save of the year with a perfect seventh.

With the victory, the Stars salvaged a split in the twin bill and remain 4.5 games back of the Diamond Jaxx in the Wild Card race heading into Sunday’s double header. All the action can be heard on www.huntsvillestars.com beginning at 10:45 a.m. central time with the Window World Pre-Game Report.