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Stars Swept In Twin Bill

June 15, 2007 - Southern League (SL1)
Huntsville Stars News Release


Cory Aldridge knocked in five runs and starters Jack Egbert and Ryan Wing gave up two runs over a combined 10 1/3 innings in Birmingham's doubleheader sweep of Huntsville Friday night at Joe Davis Stadium in front of a crowd of 6,055. The Stars dropped to 35-31 and into a first place tie with Tennessee with two games left in the first half, while the Barons improved to 32-36 in the half and to 5-3 against Huntsville.

Aldridge tripled home a run with two outs in the first inning of game two and was thrown out at the plate trying to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run. The visitors broke the game open in the third against Will Inman in his double-A debut with five runs. Robert Valido doubled in a run and scored on an infield single by Victor Mercedes, who came home on a two-out double by Jeremy West that made it 4-0. Inman hit Jeremy Frost and Ricardo Nanita singled to load the bases and knock the young right-hander out of the game. Robert Hinton took over and gave up a two-run single to Chris Kelly that capped the uprising. Inman, 4-3 with a 1.72 earned run average and a Florida State League All-Star at Brevard County, was charged with six runs on six hits and a pair of walks. Aldridge blasted a two-run home run just to the right of straightaway center field in the fourth to push the Birmingham lead to 8-0 and finish the night with five runs batted in.

Wing blanked the Stars on two hits over five frames to pick up his third win of the season. He has allowed only four earned runs on seven hits in 16 innings in his four spot starts. The home side's only offense in the nightcap came on a two-run, opposite field home run by Steve Moss in the sixth. Huntsville was held to four runs on eight hits in the two games and dropped to 5-21 in games in which it has been held to fewer than four runs.

Sam Narron gave up a two-out, run-scoring single to Aldridge in the first inning in the opener and was knocked out in the second after giving up a two-out run-scoring single to Valido that made it 3-0 Barons. Corey Thurman took over and got out of the inning before he opened the third with a walk to Thomas Collaro, who scored when Aldridge followed with a double to make it 4-0. From there Thurman retired nine in a row and 15 of the last 16 hitters he faced in going 5 1/3, the longest outing by a Stars' reliever this season.

Egbert blanked the Stars on one hit over the first three frames before Michael Brantley led off the fourth with a single, moved to third on a Steve Sollmann double and scored on a passed ball. Sollmann then scored on a Lou Palmisano single that trimmed the lead to 4-2. Egbert was taken out with runners at second and third and one out in the sixth and replaced by Fernando Hernandez, who struck out Lou Palmisano and retired Brendan Katin on a pop up to end the threat. He retired the side in order in the ninth and set down all five hitters he faced with a total of 11 offerings to earn his fifth save of the season.

The series continues Saturday night, as Huntsville will send southpaw Steve Hammond to the hill against Barons' left-hander Gio Gonzalez. Coverage of the game begins at 6:50 p.m. central time and can be heard locally on Sports Radio 730 WUMP and through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

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