Stars shine Sunday morning

By Aaron Morse

Chris Nowak drove in three runs, Amaury Rivas (11-6) pitched well, and eight Huntsville Stars (26-23, 59-60) collected hits on their way to 13 of them in a 10-1 romp over the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (23-26, 62-56) Sunday morning.

The Stars took advantage of some shaky West Tenn defense in the first inning. Lee Haydel drew a lead-off base-on-balls against Steven Hensley (7-11). They played some small ball as Brett Lawrie bunted Haydel to second base. That’s when Zelous Wheeler singled to left. Initially manager Mike Guerrero opted to hold Haydel at third. But Joe Dunigan’s throw to the plate sailed over everyone’s head, allowing Haydel to cross the plate for a 1-0 Stars lead.

They tacked on two more in the fourth. Once again it was a lead-off walk that started things as Drew Anderson reached on the free pass. Chris Nowak made Hensley pay as he drilled a two-run home run to deep left.

Rivas was dominant through four, surrendering only a lone Alex Liddi single in the second. However the fifth inning was a rocky one. Nate Tenbrink led-off with a walk, the first of the game issued by Rivas. Guillermo Quiroz followed with a chopper up the middle. Zelous Wheeler ranged to his left and looked like he’d be able to turn the double play. But the ball snuck under his glove for a single and Tenbrink went to third on the play. Rivas got Carlos Peguero to hit into a 6-3 double play as Wheeler made a nice play behind the bag at second. The twin killing did push across the first one of the game for West Tenn as they cut the Stars’ lead to 3-1.

Rivas had to work hard to get out of the frame without any more damage as he walked Dunigan and surrendered a single to Carlos Triunfel. He struck-out pinch hitter Leury Bonilla to get out of the jam.

It’d be his final frame of work as he finished with a line of five innings pitched, three hits, one run, two walks, and seven strike-outs.

Huntsville got all the insurance they needed and more in their half of the fifth. Haydel doubled to deep right center on a ball that Peguero badly misjudged. Lawrie followed with a ringing double off the top of the wall in left-center to drive in Haydel and extend the lead to 4-1.

The Stars’ got lucky when Wheeler hit a chopper to third that Alex Liddi gloved. Brett Lawrie had started towards third and appeared to be caught dead to rights. But he managed to avoid Liddi’s tag and dive head-first in to third safely. Everyone was safe, setting up a Drew Anderson RBI single that made the score 5-1.

That was all for Hensley as the Diamond Jaxx brought on Nick Hill to put out the fire. He was unable to as he immediately gave up a single to Chris Nowak. That plated Wheeler to give the Stars a 6-1 edge. Hill got a little wild as he hit Taylor Green and walked in a run when Andy Machado drew a base-on-balls. A Chuckie Caufield RBI grounder completed the scoring as the Stars put across five runs in the frame to take an 8-1 lead.

Huntsville greeted new pitcher Aaron Jensen rather rudely in the bottom of the sixth. Lawrie smacked another double to lead things off. One out later Anderson singled him home. Then with two away Green singled in the hole to right field. Machado continued his hot hitting with a RBI double down the right field line to complete the scoring as the Stars grabbed a commanding 10-1 advantage.

Meanwhile Eddie Morlan was untouchable out of the bullpen, striking out all six batters he faced.

The Diamond Jaxx managed only three hits in the game, while the Stars had a multitude of players have big days. Four of the first five hitters in the order had multi-hit games. Haydel and Lawrie were 2-3 with two runs scored each. Anderson went 3-4 with three runs scored and two RBI. Nowak had a solid day as well, going 2-4 with two runs scored, the homer, and three RBI. Andy Machado only had one hit but drove in two runs in the contest.