A trio of Huntsville pitchers combined to keep Chattanooga bats silent Saturday night as the Stars earned a 2-0 win over the suddenly struggling Lookouts at AT&T Field.
The Lookouts (24-25) have failed to score a run in their last 13 innings and managed one run in 24 innings against the Stars in three losses in two days. The opportunities were few Saturday against Michael Bowman, Lucas Luetge and Roque Mercedes, but Chattanooga did squander three good chances to dent the scoreboard. Two Lookouts runners made outs at home.
The Lookouts loaded the bases with one out in the third inning. Bowman (2-2) induced Brian Cavazos-Galves into a fielder's choice, with Matt Wallach, who had started the inning with a double, forced out at home. Leading Chattanooga hitter Scott Van Slyke had a flyout to center field to end the threat.
The game was scoreless through six innings as Bowman and Chattanooga's Michael Antonini matched zeros. Antonini was pulled after allowing five hits and striking out four without a walk to start the seventh, and Huntsville found the going better against reliever David Pfeiffer (2-1).
Pitcher Bowman, who had two of Huntsville's nine hits, singled with two out and Logan Schafer followed with a liner to right-center that was nearly caught by right fielder Kyle Russell. However, by the time center fielder Aldredo Silverio got to the ball, the run had scored.
The Lookouts' other major scoring chance came in the eighth when Elian Herrera and Cavazos-Galves had consecutive one-out singles. Van Slyke then grounded out to first, with the runners moving up, but the inning ended with Russell at the plate as Herrera was tagged out at home trying to score on a pitch that bounced only a couple of feet from catcher Anderson Del La Rosa.
After the Stars scored a run in the top of the ninth on Hanley Statia's double, the Lookouts put the tying runs on base against Mercedes - including Wallach with his third hit - before Pedroza's fly to center ended the game.
The teams conclude their series tonight at 6:15 with fireworks following.