Stars Bombard BayBears in Series Opener

Published on May 16, 2009 under Southern League (SL1)
Huntsville Stars News Release


Yohannis Perez collected four hits to pace an 18-hit attack in Huntsville's 12-6 win Saturday night in the opener of a five-game set at Hank Aaron Stadium. The Stars snapped a three-game slide to improve to 16-15 and move back into a first place tie with Tennessee in the North Division, while the BayBears dropped their sixth straight to fall to 19-17 and six and a half games behind Birmingham in the South. Huntsville improved to 10-5 away from home and defeated the BayBears for only a second time in six meetings.

The Stars jumped on starter Matt Torra for three runs in the first inning on a Kevin Melillo sacrifice fly and run-scoring hits by Jonathan Lucroy and Vinny Rottino. The visitors added another run in the second on a Shane Justis scoring fly ball that also resulted in an inning ending twin killing when Adam Stern was doubled off at first base.

Evan Frey tripled in two runs in the second and scored on a base hit by Chris Rahl that cut the Stars' lead to 4-3 and marked the first time all season Huntsville starter Chris Cody had yielded more than one run in any inning. The left-hander then retired the last 11 batters he faced to close his five-inning performance and pick up his third win of the year. He allowed four hits, walked a pair and fanned five.

Huntsville added a run in the third on another two-out, run-scoring hit by Rottino and another in the fourth on a two-out infield hit by Justis that plated Yohannis Perez, who had led off the frame with a double. Ricardo Sosa committed a fielding error with two outs in the fifth to allow another run to score before Cody helped his own cause with a run-scoring double for his second hit of the season. Torra finally held the visitors off the board in the sixth and departed after six innings, allowing a season-high eight runs, five earned, on a season-high 11 hits, while walking two and fanning one. He dropped to 1-4 and remains winless since beating the Stars on Opening Day.

The Stars took a 9-4 lead into the home seventh before James Skelton singled in a run and a Justis error on an attempted double play allowed Rahl to score to trim the lead to 9-6. However, Huntsville removed any doubt over the outcome by scoring three times in the eighth off of Reid Mahon on run-scoring hits by Lucroy and Drew Anderson. The Stars got three hits from Rottino and Justis, while Lucroy, Anderson and Freddy Parejo added two each.

Robert Hinton threw two shutout innings to close out the Stars' fifth straight road win after Mike McClendon had given up three runs, only one earned, over two innings. McClendon walked Sean Coughlin in the seventh to end a 21 1/3 innings streak without issuing a free pass dating back to April 12 vs. Mississippi.

The series continues Sunday afternoon, as right-hander Jeremy Jeffress gets the starting nod for Huntsville against BayBears' right-hander Wes Roemer. Coverage of the game begins at 1:50 pm central time and can be heard through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

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Southern League Stories from May 16, 2009


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