
Stars first baseman Hunter Morris(above)hits one of his two solo home runs in 10-5 win over the Jacksonville Suns at Joe Davis Stadium. Photo Courtesy: Huntsville Stars
By Steve Kolbe
Stars first baseman Hunter Morris(above)hits one of his two solo home runs in 10-5 win over the Jacksonville Suns at Joe Davis Stadium. Photo Courtesy: Huntsville Stars
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Huntsville first baseman(above)drove in three runs and scored twice to lead the Stars over the Jacksonville Suns 7-4 at Joe Davis Stadium. Morris is third in the Southern League in batting, second in RBI’s, and first in extra-base hits. Photo Courtesy: Huntsville Stars
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
By Steve Kolbe
The Suns finished their season-opening series against the Stars with a 7-4 win on Monday afternoon to improve to 3-2 on the season.
The Suns began the scoring in the third inning off of Stars starter R.J. Seidel, when Paul Gran singled and pitcher Omar Poveda walked. Jeff Dominguez then hit a three-run home run into the right field seats to give Jacksonville a 3-0 lead for the second time in as many days. It was the first hit of the season for Dominguez, and the Suns second three-run blast of the year.
In the fifth inning, Jake Smolinski scratched out an infield hit and Kyle Jensen drew a walk. Smolinksi would score on a Kyle Skipworth sacrifice fly and Jensen would cross the plate on a pass ball to increase the Suns lead to 5-0. Smolinski finished the day 0-for-5 with a run scored. Jensen went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
The stars would get on the scoreboard in the sixth inning, scoring twice to cut the Jacksonville lead to 5-2. The Stars collected four hits in the inning, with Anderson De La Rosa and Lee Haydel each scoring a run. De La Rosa and Haydel combined for six of the 14 hits by the Stars in the game. Kentrail Davis, Jeff Bianchi, and Scooter Gennett had two hits apiece. Huntsville put at least one runner on base in every inning except the eighth.
The Stars drew even closer in the seventh. Hunter Davis reached base on an error and was driven in by De La Rose with an RBI single. Haydel then tripled into the right field corner to push De La Rosa across to make it a one-run game at 5-4.
But that was as close as Huntsville would get. Reliever Evan Reed entered and made sure there wouldn’t be another comeback by tossing two solid hitless innings for the Suns. Jacksonville added a run in the seventh on an Skipworth single that drove in Shawn Bowman, and another run in the eighth when Curt Smith hit a solo home run to left. It was Jacksonville’s fifth home run in five games to start the season.
The two teams combined for 24 hits in the game, and over the last two games there have been a total of 39 hits. Eight different Suns players had at least one hit in Monday’s game.
The winning pitcher was Omar Poveda. In his first start of the season he pitched five and two-thirds innings allowing 10 hits and two runs. He struck out six and walked only one. Last season Poveda struck out 116 batters in his 27 starts. Even Reed earned his first save of the year.
The Suns begin a five-game series against the Chattanooga Lookouts on Tuesday April 10th, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05PM. Joey O’Gara looks to make his second start of the season for the Suns when they take on the Lookouts. O’Gara allowed only three hits and no runs to earn the win in the season opener against Huntsville.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
By Steve Kolbe
After winning the first game of the season, the Jacksonville Suns have dropped two straight after a 3-1 loss to Huntsville on Saturday night.
The Stars struck early when Suns starting pitcher Matt Montgomery walked Kentrail Davis on four pitches to begin the game. After stealing second base and then moving to third base on a ground out, Davis scored the first run of the night when Scooter Gennett grounded to short and the Stars led 1-0.
Davis reached base again in the third inning, stole second, and scored on Gennett’s single to left to make it 2-0 Huntsville. The Suns scored their only run of the night in the third inning. Donnie Webb bunted for a base hit, and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Jensen to cut the Stars lead in half at 2-1.
That would be as close as the Suns would get. Huntsville added a run in the sixth inning on an RBI double by pinch hitter Lee Haydel to make the score 3-1. It marks the second straight game that a Stars pinch hitter has driven in a run.
The Suns were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, while the Stars were 5-for-13. Through three games Jacksonville is 5-for-26 with runners in scoring position.
Jake Smolinski had a big night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three doubles. He fell just short of tying the Southern League record for most doubles in a game by a single player. The record is four, last accomplished by Jacksonville’s Jimmy Rohan during the 2006 season.
Huntsville catcher Jason Jaramillo collected three hits. Angel Gonzalez and Jeff Bianchi combined for four of the Stars 12 total hits.
Second baseman Paul Gran had a pair of singles and finished 2-for-4. Jaime Ortiz, Shawn Bowman, and Donnie Webb each had a hit in the game. Gennett drove in two of the three Huntsville runs, Lee Haydel drove in the other. Kyle Jensen had the only run driven in for the Suns.
Jacksonville starter Matt Montgomery suffers the loss. He pitched five and two thirds innings, allowing eight hits and three runs. Kyle Kaminska and Josh Schmidt combined to pitch three and a third shutout innings. Huntsville starting pitcher Evan Anundsen went three innings and allowed five hits and a run. Bradley Blanks, Jesus Sanchez, and Robert Wooten each pitched two innings for the Stars. Blanks picks up his first win, while Wooten earns the save.
Right-hander Kyle Heckathorn takes the mound for Huntsville in game four of the series on Sunday afternoon. The Suns will give the ball to lefty Graham Taylor.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve
By Steve Kolbe
The 50th Anniversary season of Jacksonville Suns Baseball began with 2-0 victory over the Huntsville Stars on Thurdsday night. Pitching was the story of the first game of the 2012 season. Joey O’Gara had a solid outing as the Opening Day starter, going six and two-thirds of an inning to record the win while allowing only three hits and striking out two batters.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News