Stars stymied by Barons

By Aaron Morse

The Huntsville Stars (29-27, 62-64) managed only three hits on their way to a 5-1 defeat Sunday night against the Birmingham Barons (23-33, 47-79).

Stars’ starter Wily Peralta was cruising along until the fourth where it all came undone. He walked the lead-off man and Christian Marrero followed with a single to right. A ground-out moved both runners up 90 feet and Salvador Sanchez singled home the first run of the game. After a hit by pitch loaded the bases, Dale Mollenhauer delivered the dagger with a triple to deep center field. A Tyler Kuhn sacrifice fly drove him home and all of a sudden it was 5-0 Barons.

Peralta (1-2) ended up going four innings, giving up the five runs on five hits. He walked three and struck-out three as well.

The Stars managed their lone run in the seventh inning, but they should have gotten more. Brett Lawrie led-off with a walk. Zelous Wheeler followed with a single to left. After Drew Anderson walked, the Barons took starter Johnnie Lowe out of the game. New pitcher Deunte Heath got Chris Nowak to strike-out. Taylor Green managed to get his team-leading 79th RBI with a ground-out. But the Stars got nothing else as Andy Machado popped out to end the inning.

Back-to-back walks started the eighth inning and Lee Haydel singled to load the bases with nobody out. But Lawrie struck-out and Wheeler popped out to leave it up to Drew Anderson. Anderson struck-out as well and the Barons were out of the jam.

The Stars went down harmlessly in the ninth as all three batters struck-out. With the defeat, Huntsville falls to 3.5 games out of the Wild Card race behind the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx with 14 games to play.

Huntsville returns home Monday night to open a three game set against the Montgomery Biscuits. First pitch is at 7 p.m. If you can’t make it to “The Joe” you can tune in on www.huntsvillestars.com.