Smokies Send Stars to Second Straight Defeat

Published on June 30, 2009 under Southern League (SL1)
Huntsville Stars News Release


Hung-Wen Chen tossed six solid innings and Tennessee used a four-run sixth inning rally to break away and down Huntsville 7-2 Tuesday night in the third of a six-game set at Smokies Park. The Smokies won their second straight to improve to 5-4 in the second half and move into a first place tie in the North Division with the Stars, who dropped to 5-4 in the second half and 43-35 overall. The Smokies won for the fifth time in 13 games in the season series.

The Stars scored in the first inning for a third straight game when Johnny Raburn hit a home run to right field. It was his first of the season, just the sixth of his career and his first since August 11, 2007 at Jacksonville while playing for the Carolina Mudcats. The home side came right back to score two times in the bottom of the inning on run-scoring hits by Tony Thomas and Doug Deeds, who was the fourth straight hitter in the inning to collect a hit against Bobby Bramhall. The Stars left-hander worked out of further trouble by getting Ty Wright to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Raburn singled with one out in the sixth, advanced to second base on a ground out and scored to tie the game on a two-out single by Kevin Melillo. The Smokies answered back in their half of the inning to regain the lead for good when Marquez Smith led off with a home run to left-center field, his sixth of the season. Deeds followed with a double and scored on a one-out single by Jim Adduci that made it a 4-2 game and knocked Bramhall out of the contest. Juan Sandoval took over and uncorked a wild pitch that moved Adduci to third from where he scored on a two-out Wellington Castillo single. Castillo moved to third base when Raburn misplayed a Blake Lalli ground ball and scored on a single by Jonathan Mota that finished off the decisive rally. Bramhall took the loss to drop to 4-5 after yielding five runs on eight hits, while walking two and fanning one.

Chen allowed two runs on seven hits to pick up his first win since June 6. He did not walk a batter and did not record a strikeout in lifting his record to 4-6. Marco Carillo followed and retired all six hitters he faced, including striking out four. Brian Schlitter took over in the ninth and set down the Stars in order, as the trio combined to retire the last 10 Huntsville hitters.

The series continues Wednesday evening with right-hander Mark Holliman starting for the Stars against Tennessee left-hander Jeremy Papelbon. Coverage of the game begins at 6:00 pm central time and can be heard through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

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Southern League Stories from June 30, 2009


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