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Welch leads Stars back into win column

August 10, 2009 - Southern League (SL1)
Huntsville Stars News Release


David Welch worked into and out of trouble for most of his seven innings of work and Huntsville scored in four straight innings en route to an 8-2 win over Mississippi Monday night in the fourth of a five-game set at Joe Davis Stadium. The Stars improved to 16-28 in the second half and snapped their six-game losing streak, while the Braves slipped to 22-22 in the second half and 53-61. The Stars won for only a third time in their last 14 home games since June 27 and lifted their record at "the Joe" to 21-28.

Jason Heyward tripled with two outs in the first inning and scored when Freddie Freeman singled into center field to give the visitors the early lead and mark the second straight day they had scored in their first at-bat. Jonathan Lucroy led off the home second with a double to push his hitting streak to a season-high 12 straight games and came in to score two batters later on a Lorenzo Cain single. Cain advanced to second base on a two-out walk to Yohannis Perez and came into score the go-ahead run on a single by Welch, who drove in his first run of the season. Kevin Melillo led off the home third with a triple and scored on a two-out hit by Cain, who knocked in a pair of runs for a third time this season, to extend the cushion to 3-1.

Yohannis Perez singled to lead off the fourth, moved to second base on a Welch sacrifice and then tagged up and moved to third base on an Adam Stern line out to right field. The shortstop Hicks mishandled Heyward's throw back to the infield to allow Perez to score to push the home team's lead to 4-1. Drew Anderson singled to start the fifth, stole second base, moved to third on a ground out and scored when Eric Campbell misplayed Taylor Green's grounder to third to extend the lead to 5-1. Braves' starter Tim Gustafson was lifted after five frames and charged with three earned runs on seven hits, while he issued four walks and struck out two. He took the loss to fall to 1-3 on the season.

Welch stranded a pair of runners in the third, fourth and fifth innings before retiring the side in order in the sixth. Matt Young opened the seventh with a triple and scored on a Heyward ground out that sliced the Stars' lead to 5-2. Welch was removed after allowing eight hits, walking three and fanning two. He stranded eight base runners to grab his sixth win of the season, and third at home.

Huntsville added three runs in the seventh against Jeff Lyman on a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded by JR Hopf and a wild pitch that scored Lucroy. The Stars last scored eight runs in a game in the first game of the last road trip at Montgomery on July 27. The Stars lifted their overall record to 54-59 and squared the season series at seven games apiece.



Southern League Stories from August 10, 2009


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