The definition of a scorching minor league season is going 2-for-5 in July and raising your batting average just one percentage point.

Such is the case with Huntsville third baseman Mat Gamel, whose single to left field Tuesday night in the top of the ninth inning scored Freddy Parejo and propelled the Stars to a 5-4 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts at AT&T Field. Gamel entered the game leading the Southern League with a .371 average and upped it to .372.

“It’s pretty special,” Gamel said. “I’ve never had a year like this, and I’m pretty fortunate that I’ve been in decent health and able to do what I’ve been doing.”

The No. 5 prospect in Milwaukee’s organization singled in the first inning and led off the eighth with a double, but his double was later changed to an error on Lookouts center fielder Sean Henry.

Gamel’s game-winner occurred with Parejo at third base, Alcides Escobar at first and with one out. Escobar broke for second and Lookouts shortstop Chris Valaika shifted toward second, and Gamel placed it where Valaika vacated.

“That’s the sign of a good hitter,” Lookouts manager Mike Goff said.

Huntsville, which lost the North Division’s first-half race to West Tenn in a single-game playoff, improved to 11-10 in the second half and took sole possession of second behind Tennessee (14-7). The Lookouts dropped to 10-11 after losing one-run games on consecutive nights for the first time this season.

Tuesday’s game took 3 hours, 3 minutes, marking the 10th time in 13 games Chattanooga has played in three-plus hours and the 13th straight in more than 2:50.

Before the game, Lookouts players were hoping to make a dent against Huntsville starter David Welch, who no-hit them in a seven-inning contest June 2 at AT&T. Henry quickly prevented a repeat by leading off the bottom of the first with a single to left, but the Lookouts were held scoreless until the sixth.

Danny Dorn broke up Welch’s shutout bid with a solo homer to right, and the Lookouts tied it later in the sixth on a Tonys Gutierrez single up the middle that scored Valaika. Welch was taken out after allowing two runs on six hits in six innings.

“He had his changeup working the last time we faced him, and I don’t think he threw his changeup at all tonight,” Henry said. “He was just throwing fastballs and curveballs, so he was eliminating one pitch.”

Said Goff: “He still tied us up pretty good.”

The Lookouts took their only lead in the seventh on a Justin Turner sacrifice and gave it back in the eighth when Huntsville benefited from Henry’s fielding error and a throwing error by Michael DeJesus in left. Chattanooga pulled even at 4-4 in its half of the eighth on Chris Denove’s two-out single to right that scored Eric Eymann.

“In a close ballgame like that, you can’t afford to make mistakes,” Goff said. “We made them and they didn’t, and that’s what it came down to.”

Travis Wood (2-4, 5.31 ERA) is scheduled to start tonight’s 7:15 game for the Lookouts, with Troy Cate (1-0, 2.13) scheduled for the Stars.

LeCure now all-star

Lookouts starting pitcher Sam LeCure (7-4, 3.40) was added Tuesday to the North Division roster for Monday’s Southern League All-Star Game in Zebulon, N.C. LeCure replaces Joe Bateman, who was promoted June 26 from Huntsville to Triple-A Nashville.

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