Walkoff Walk Ends Stars Skid

Published on August 4, 2013 under Southern League (SL1)
Huntsville Stars News Release


One night after blowing a ninth inning lead, the Huntsville Stars ran off three unanswered runs and shocked the Mississippi Braves with a walkoff 3-2 victory at Joe Davis Stadium on Sunday evening.

With no scoring after four innings, the M-Braves took their initial lead in the top of the fifth against Stars starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann. After a one-out single from M-Braves catcher Braeden Schlehuber and a groundout from first basemen Barrett Kleinknecht that put him on second, it set the stage for Mississippi starting pitcher Mitch Atkins. The former big leaguer helped out his own cause with a RBI single that broke the scoreless tie.

One inning later, a solo homer from M-Braves outfielder Robby Hefflinger off of Jungmann made the score 2-0.

Those two sequences were the only two instances of struggle for Jungmann on the game. The 23-year-old righty was tabbed with a no-decision after giving up two runs on five hits in six innings while striking out four batters without walking anybody.

The Stars started taking Jungmann out of harms way in the sixth inning, where a RBI single from shortstop Hector Gomez put the Stars on the board and cut their deficit to one run.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Stars began finishing off their comeback against former teammate Thomas Keeling (L, 0-3). With the bases loaded and two outs, Keeling entered the game and walked third basemen Mike Walker to tie the game.

After Stars reliever Eric Marzec (W, 3-0) pitched a scoreless top half of the ninth, Keeling walked outfielder Eric Patterson and gave up a pair of singles to catcher Adam Weisenburger and Gomez to load the bases with nobody out.

Coming into the game as a pinch-hitter, Joey Paciorek then drew a five-pitch walk from Keeling to score Patterson to complete the walkoff victory.

The win in walkoff fashion was the third of the sorts for the Stars this season.

Offensively speaking, Gomez and second basemen Nick Shaw paced the Stars with three hits apiece. With a single in the fifth inning, first basemen Jason Rogers extended his hitting streak to 17 games.

The victory also snapped the Stars season-long losing skid at five games.

On Monday, the Stars will play game four of a five-game series at Joe Davis Stadium against the Mississippi Braves. Huntsville will send RHP Ariel Pena (5-7, 4.14 ERA) to the bump while Mississippi will counter with RHP Michael Lee (5-8, 4.16 ERA). First pitch is 6:43 ET.

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Southern League Stories from August 4, 2013


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