Stars Win Game, Pennant, 6-5
June 13, 2003 - Southern League (SL1)
Birmingham Barons News Release
BIRMINGHAM, AL â The Birmingham Barons fought a hard battle but dropped game four of the series to the Huntsville Stars by the score of 5-6 in front of 3,315 fans on Thursday evening at the Hoover Met. With the victory the Stars split the series 2-2 and clinched the Western Division first-half and a spot in the 2003 playoffs.
The Barons and Stars fought back and forth all night with the Stars getting on the board first. Ryan Knox started the game with a double off Barons starter Mitch Wylie and later scored on a double by J.J Hardy to give the Stars an early 1-0 lead. Huntsville tacked on two more runs in the third on an error by McWhirter and a sacrifice fly by Cory Hart to take a three run lead.
Birmingham fought back with a run in the bottom of the third on a RBI double by Danny Sandoval to cut the lead to two but Huntsville would get the run back in the top of the fourth on another throwing error by Wylie. The score was cut to 4-3 by the Barons on a sac fly by Carlos Maldonado in the fourth and an RBI single by Scott Bikowski in the fifth but Huntsville would get both runs back with single runs in the seventh and eighth.
The Barons made one last effort at coming from behind by plating two runs in the eighth on a single by Chad Durham that cut the Stars lead to just one going into the ninth inning. The bottom of the ninth saw Sandoval single to lead off the inning but he never moved past first as Juan Piniella popped out trying to sacrifice Sandoval to second and Ryan Hankins grounded into a game ending double play.
Matt Parker (5-1) picked up the win as he threw 3.2 innings in relief of starter Jeff Robinson and Matt Childers picked up his fifth save of the season. The loss went to Wylie (1-1) as he gave up four runs (three unearned) in four innings in just his second start of the season.
Tomorrow will be the start of a four-game series with the Chattanooga Lookouts that will rap up the first half of play. It will be the first match up of the season between the two teams and will feature RHP Kris McWhirter (0-1, 1.64) for the Barons and LHP John Koronka (5-5, 3.79) for the Lookouts.
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Southern League Stories from June 13, 2003
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- Stars Clinch First Half, 6-5 - Huntsville Stars
- Stars Win Game, Pennant, 6-5 - Birmingham Barons
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