Link Report for Fri. 9/11 -- Stars Series Now Tied; Helena's Tough Season Ends

[Mass Haas]

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[Mass Haas]

Friday's Menu: TGIF!

Times Central; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: Season complete

 

Huntsville: RHP Nick Green at home vs. Tennessee (Cubs), 6:45 PM pre-game; 7:00 gametime; game two in a best-of-five series, Stars lead 1-0

Live Audio Link

Brevard County: Season complete

 

Wisconsin: Season complete

 

Helena: LHP Chris Capuano at home vs. Missoula (Diamondbacks), 7:50 PM pre-game; 8:05 gametime; season finale

Live Audio Link

 

Arizona Summer League: Season complete

 

Dominican Summer League Brewers / Orioles: Season complete

[Mass Haas]

Follow Friday's action as it happens:

MiLB.com now has Gameday available for AA as well as AAA this season.

 

Huntsville:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_09_11_tenaax_hunaax_1&did=t559&sid=t559

 

Helena:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_09_11_misrok_helrok_1&did=t433&sid=t433

[TheCrew07]

What a downer of a season for Helena, capped by giving up 3 runs in each the 8th and 9th innings to come from ahead to lose. I realize all of the more advanced players were aggressively promoted up to WI, but wow. I'm intrigued by Halton and look forward to seeing what he does next season for WI. Other position players I'll be looking forward to watching in WI include Krieger, Garfield, Ellington, Stang, Zarraga, and my boy Trejo. I'll have a passing interest in Dykstra as well I guess, just to see what he'll do in round 2.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Tennessee (Cubs) 3, Huntsville 1, best-of-five series tied, 1-1

Huntsville Site Game Summary

 

Coleman Carries Smokies to Win in Game Two

Tennessee Heads Home With Split in Huntsville

By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars

Casey Coleman spun 7 2/3 masterful innings to pitch Tennessee to a 3-1 victory over Huntsville Friday night in the second game of the best-of-five North Division Playoffs at Joe Davis Stadium. The Smokies evened the series at a game apiece with games three and four set for Smokies' Park Saturday and Sunday in Sevierville, TN.

 

Jim Adduci doubled with one out in the first inning and stayed put when Marquez Smith reached on a Taylor Green throwing error. Blake Lalli followed with a base hit to plate Adduci to put the Smokies on the board four batters into the game. Tyler Colvin singled to load the bases before Starlin Castro popped up for the second out. Smith was then able to score on a passed ball by catcher Jonathan Lucroy that gave the visitors a 2-0 edge against Stars' starter Nick Green.

 

Lucroy led off the home second with a double, moved to third base on a ground ball out and scored on a base hit by Steffan Wilson that trimmed the lead to 2-1. From that point on, the Stars' offense was stifled by Coleman and Brian Schlitter.

 

Green had retired 13 out of 14 before Adduci led off the sixth with an infield hit, moved to second base on a walk to Smith and advanced, with Smith, on a Lalli ground out. The Stars intentionally walked Colvin to get to the right-hand swinger Castro, who sent a line drive sacrifice fly deep enough into center field to chase home Adduci to extend the Smokies' lead to 3-1. Green was lifted after six innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out six. In his seven losses, the Stars have mustered only five runs while he has actually been on the mound.

 

Coleman retired 19 straight Huntsville hitters before Michael Garciaparra singled with two outs in the eighth inning and advanced to third base on a pinch-hit double by Freddy Parejo that knocked the right-hander out of the game. Brian Schlitter, second in the league with 22 regular season saves, took over and got Lorenzo Cain to fly out to end the threat. Coleman allowed four hits, struck out one and recorded 14 ground ball outs to earn the victory. Schlitter locked down the home side with a scoreless ninth inning to grab the save.

 

The series continues Saturday night with Stars' right-hander Mark Holliman taking the hill against Smokies' right-hander Andrew Cashner. Coverage of the game begins at 6:00 PM central time and can be heard through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score

In their last ten games, the Stars have scored a total of 15 runs -- Huntsville has lost 11 of 12...

 

Huntsville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Smokies even series with 3-1 win vs. Stars

By Brad Shepard For The Huntsville Times

 

Casey Coleman sneaked out of a celebratory Tennessee Smokies locker room with his cell phone in hand.

 

It wasn't that he was avoiding the handshakes and pats on the back. But a pitching performance like the one he'd just turned in to lead the Smokies to a 3-1 playoff win over the Stars called for a late-night roundup of family and friends back home in Florida. Especially considering it evened the best-of-five series at a game a piece.

 

"I was real focused the whole game," said Coleman, who threw 7 2/3 innings of four-hit, one-run baseball. "I just fed off my teammates. In batting practice, they were real loose and joking around. We get three at home now, so winning one on the road was definitely our goal.

 

"For me personally, this is probably the biggest win of my career."

 

For a man who shared the Southern League with 14 wins and who tossed five innings of no-decision work in last year's championship game when he was with Single-A Daytona, that's a hefty statement.

 

On Friday, Coleman kept the Stars off-balance with a nasty two-seam fastball. Of the 23 outs he recorded, 14 were on the ground.

 

"When he's on, he gets ground balls," Smokies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "He's got a real nice two-seamer and uses both sides of the plate.

 

"When he pitches, the infield needs to be ready for ground balls."

 

Despite Coleman's performance, Huntsville nearly rallied again. After falling behind 2-0 in the first, the Stars cut the lead in half with a run in the second.

 

For a fleeting moment, it appeared they might recapture the eighth-inning heroics that won them Game 1, when Steffan Wilson's dramatic home run lifted the Stars to victory.

 

After Michael Garciaparra's single and a Freddy Parejo pinch-hit double chased Coleman, Lorenzo Cain emerged with the tying run in scoring position against Tennessee reliever Brian Schlitter.

 

After swinging at a pitch over his head for the second strike, Cain lofted a lazy ball behind shortstop that was caught for the final out.

 

"I was just going up there being the guy who wants to come through for his teammates," Cain said. "It's nerve-wracking, but at the same time, I wanted to be there. I was a little too aggressive going after pitches over my head. Everybody wants to be the guy to come through in the clutch. Unfortunately, I didn't."

 

Instead, Schlitter retired Cain and finished off the Stars in the ninth for the save, and another solid performance by Huntsville starter Nick Green - the regular-season's hard-luck loser - resulted in a loss.

 

Green pitched six strong innings, but Coleman was just better.

 

"Nobody is down," Green said. "Until the last out, everybody had the mentality we were going to win this thing. The main thing is we battled. It was a pitcher's duel. Unfortunately, we were just one hit away."

[Mass Haas]

Final: Missoula (Diamondbacks) 9, Helena 7, ten innings

 

Link while active, text follows:

 

Curtain falls on Brewers

By TRENT MAKELA Helena Independent Record

The last summer sun of baseball season faded over the smoky-orange shoulder of Mount Helena before the third inning Friday, but the Helena Brewers managed to hold off the setting of their season for one extra inning in a 9-7 loss to Missoula at Kindrick Field.

 

"A loss is a loss, but it's a game we should have won," Helena manager Rene Gonzales said. "They didn't score from the fifth to the ninth, but we didn't finish. It's the story of our season."

The loss left the Brewers tied with Billings for third place in the Northern Division at 12-26 in the second half.

 

The Osprey host Great Falls today to open a best-of-three semifinal playoff series.

 

Former major league All-Star Chris Capuano made his third and final rehab start for the Brewers, allowing just one hit and one run in two innings.

 

Former first-round pick Kyle Heckathorm then sparkled in a new-look relief role, replacing Capuano for six innings and allowing two runs on six hits.

 

Mike Roberts seemed set to end his season as a hero after his fifth-inning triple cleared the loaded bases and put Helena up 5-3.

 

That score stuck until Missoula, in second place withan 18-19 record in the second half, finally came alive in the top of the ninth.

 

Ender Inciarte slapped a bases-loaded, one-out single past diving Helena first baseman Sean Halton to plate two runs.

 

Then, David Nick hitinto a fielders choice that plated another to put Missoula up 6-5.

 

Brewer Joey Paciorek later managed to knot the score and extend the game with a chopped single over Missoula second baseman David Nick in the bottom of the ninth to score Cutter Dykstra.

 

A beaned batter, a fielding error and a pair of doubles put the Osprey back up by two after just five batters in the tenth. Yun Kim's sacrifice fly finally capped the rally with Missoula up 9-6.

 

The Brewers did threaten in the bottom of the inning when Michael Marseco singled and Scott Krieger doubled, his third two-bagger of the night. The hits put each in scoring position with one out.

 

Chris Ellington grounded into a fielder's choice, plating Marseco, to pull within 9-7, but Halton's blast to left-center fell roughly 10 feet short of a hero's end to the season.

 

"Honestly, it was a disappointing year," Gonzales said. "We had injuries and guys called up. We tasted first and lost four in a row. We had lots of guys like (Cutter) Dykstra and Halton who developed and got better, though. That's what we're here to do."

 

Halton singled twice in the game, his seventh multi-hit performance in the last eight contests.

 

Jake Hale improved to 1-1 with the win in relief for Missoula.

 

Helena Box Score

Cutter Dykstra committed 20 errors at second base in just 61 Helena games -- he was a triple shy of a cycle here; way to finish up, Kyle Heckathorn...

 

Helena Game Log