Monday, August 30, 2010

Stars split twin bill with Mobile

By Aaron Morse

Caleb Gindl enjoyed a 5-6 double header and the Huntsville Stars (31-31, 64-68) won game two by a final score of 2-1 after dropping game one 5-3 in Sunday’s twin bill with the Mobile BayBears (35-26, 71-58).

Game one did not go the Stars’ way from the beginning. With one out in the first, Huntsville starter Wily Peralta (1-3) issued back-to-back walks. Konrad Schmidt made him pay as he unleashed a three-run home run to give Mobile a 3-0 lead. Ryan Wheeler followed with a homer of his own to extend the advantage to 4-0.

The Stars clawed back against Mobile starter Joshua Collmenter in the fourth. With two gone, Zelous Wheeler singled to left. Collmenter got a bit wild at that point as he walked the next two hitters. That set up Gindl who crushed a two-RBI double to cut the BayBears’ lead in half.

Mobile chased Peralta from the game in the fifth. Collin Cowgill led-off with an infield single. Peralta walked two batters in a row to load the bases with nobody out. In came Robert Hinton, who got Ryan Wheeler to fly out to shallow center. Then Taylor Harbin hit a tailor-made double play ball to Zelous Wheeler at short. But Wheeler bobbled the ball and his only play was to first. Cowgill scored on the play to make it 5-2 in favor of the BayBears.

Huntsville appeared to be in business in the sixth against new pitcher Josh Ellis. With one away, Chris Nowak and Gindl smacked back-to-back singles. Then with two down, pinch hitter Andy Machado came up big with a RBI single, putting runners at the corners and bringing Lee Haydel to the plate with the score 5-3. The BayBears brought in Daniel Strange to pitch and he immediately picked-off Machado at first to end the threat.

The Stars went down harmlessly in the seventh to dip to under .500 in the second half.

They weren’t under .500 for long as game two was a nail biter, but it was Gindl who once again provided the clutch offense.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the third inning, Gindl doubled to deep center field. The two runs that scored on the play were enough for starter Andre Lamontagne (4-3) and reliever Jeremy Jeffress to hold the lead.

Lamontagne bounced back from his previous start with a strong outing, going 5.2 innings, giving up three hits, one run (earned), while walking two and striking out an impressive nine batters. The sixth inning chased him from the game as with two outs Chris Rahl singled and was driven in by a Bryan Byrne double. Enter Jeffress, who got Sean Coughlin to ground out to third to end the frame with the Stars still up 2-1.

He’d nail down his third save of the year with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to get the Stars to within three games of the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx, who lost Sunday.

The Stars open a four game series at Montgomery Tuesday night. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. and all the action can be heard on the Stars Radio Network and www.huntsvillestars.com.

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