HOT, HOT, HOT HERNAN'S BAT MATCHES 98° EVENING For the 2nd time in 5 games, Huntsville's hottest hitter, Hernan Iribarren, hit two triples, and added a double and 4 RBIs, as the Huntsville Stars chased 12-game winner Jack Egbert in the 2nd inning, in what looked on paper like a pitching duel, then held on to win their 8th straight on another sweltering night at Joe Davis Stadium........ The Stars are now 30-17 in the 2nd half....... Hernan's 10th triple is the most by any Star since Dave Krynzel hit 11 in 2003. Of course, it's still a way off from the seemingly untouchable record of 18 hit by Luis Polonia in 1985, but more impressive is the fact that in the month of August, Iribarren is 18-for-34 - a .529 average, and that in his last 8 games, he's had 7 multi-hit games and 18 in 34 going back to July 1. It's hard, sometimes, for a team that has already won a 1st half title, to keep that momentum going in the 2nd half....... Complacency sinks in and attrition does the rest as a team's best players -- the ones that took them to the title -- move up the ladder, such as occurred with Mississippi this year....... But the Stars have had a better 2nd half than 1st. (after 47 games, they were a modest 25-22), and are 21-6 since the Southern League All-Star break........Give manager Don Money credit for keeping this team focused this half and for instilling the will to win even after reaching their first half goal of making the playoffs. They are actually playing harder and look even more determined of winning, for the first time in their history, a 2nd half title as well. (In 1994, the Stars lost the 2nd half to Chattanooga by ½ game.) Also give Don and the team credit for winning tonight with a barren bench....... Alcides Escobar and Michael Brantley are both nursing sore hamstrings and 1st baseman Steve Sollmann has left the team for Chicago, where his wife will have a C-section tomorrow, as they await their first child, but the non-regulars answered the call admirably........ Pressed into 1st base duty for a 2nd straight day, Carlos Corporan had his first 2-hit day since June 17....... Pressed into duty in left field again, Ryan Crew doubled and drove in 2 runs, and in two days, has gone 4-for-7 with 2 doubles and 4 RBIs......... Guilder Rodriguez, pressed into action at short for the 2nd straight day -- the first time since late June he's started in back-to-back games -- scored a run following a perfect 3-for-3 day, Wednesday. Guilder had gone 2-for-20 in July. There are a lot of names that stick out, and the first ones that come to mind are -- Brendan Katin with his 20 HRs and league-leading 79 RBIs, Adam Heether, who has hit .350 since July 1, and tomorrow's starter Lindsay Gulin, who will attempt to become the Stars' first 12-game winner since Paul Stewart in 2002......... But no one right now is matching the offense of Hernan Iribarren. Since the 2nd half got under way, Hernan has hit .368 with 9 doubles, 8 triples, and 24 RBIs, raising his average from .254 when the half started, to .300 after tonight's unparalleled performance........ He became the first Huntsville Star to hit two triples in a game twice in one season. That's nothing to sneeze at. Prior to the start of the season, only six players since 1985 have managed to hit two in a game, the last one being Elvis Pena in 2002. Hernan did it twice in a span of five days. The Stars, for the 2nd straight night and the 17th time in 36 games, scored in the 1st inning and it was Iribarren who came in after hitting a 2-out double, scoring on a sharp liner to left. The Barons tied it in the 2nd on a double to left by Shawn Garrett, who spent the last 2½ seasons with four different AAA teams, and a single to right by Cory Aldridge, another minor league vet. But the Stars, coming in with 10 multi-hit games in their last 17, and a .284 average since July 21, when they tied a club record with their 12th straight win, opened the floodgates in the bottom half to take a 7-1 lead. The Stars sent 11 batters to the plate in the 2nd, knocking Jack Egbert, whose previous shortest start had been 4 1/3 innings on May 10, out of the game...... It was triggered after Egbert hit Brendan Katin on a 3-2 pitch. One out later, he grazed Carlos Corporan, then lost Guilder Rodriguez on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases....... Mel Stocker then hit a soft grounder to Chris Getz, who had trouble making up his mind where to throw the ball. Finally, with the Stars speediest hitter bearing down the line a matter of feet way, Getz threw the ball away. Stocker, strangely, was given credit for a hit and an RBI for driving in Katin, and an extra base on the throwing error to first, which scored Corporan, and moved G. Rod to third........ Stocker stole second on a 0-1 pitch to Ryan Crew, who then doubled him and G. Rod........ That was all for Egbert, who had gone at least 5 innings in 21 of his 23 starts....... In came Carlos Torres, who had held runners in scoring position to a .163 average this season........ But that meant nothing to Iribarren, who followed on a 0-1 pitch with a hard grounder that followed the line all the way from 1st base to the right field corner for a triple to make the score 6-1....... After striking out Adam Heether on three pitches, Torres walked Palmisano on four, then was ahead of Katin 0-and-2 when he hit a broken-bat single to right to close the scoring....... The 11th batter, Steve Moss, struck out on four pitches. The Barons scored twice more in the 3rd on a 2-run HR by Adam Shabala, but after six innings, the Stars had a secure 10-3 lead......... That turned into a save situation, however, for Luis Pena, when E.J. Shanks, the submarine-style former independent league pitcher, came in and struggled through the 7th inning, giving up a walk on five pitches to Jeremy Frost, and a single by Sean Smith, sandwiching a force out....... Shanks was hit hard, even on his outs -- a long fly ball deep to left-center by Shabala that Ryan Crew chased down was Shanks' second out. Then Victor Mercedes hit a ground-rule double that bounced over the wall in left (it was argued Crew had tipped the ball over to no avail) and David Cook homered to left to make it a 10-7 ballgame........ Chris Kelly hit his 1st home run since July 17 to make it a 10-8 ballgame in the 8th, but Luis Pena, coming on in relief for the 5th time in 7 days, retired the side in order in the 9th for his 10th save, with the help of a snappy 4-6-3 double play to end the game (after it was deflected by Pena.)....... With Pena's 10th save and the 17 belonging to Marino Salas, it is the first time since 2002 when Matt Childers had 12 and Roberto Giron 10 that the Stars have had two relievers in a season with 10 or more saves in a season. Big scratch-your-head moment in the 6th inning....... With the Stars leading, 10-3, reliever Adam Russell was holding Brendan Katin on first base and 1st baseman Cole Armstrong playing close to the bag........ Aside the fact that the Stars have a 7-run lead and are not looking to run, Katin has only one stolen base all season, and that came in the 2nd inning and has been caught twice this year........ Why treat this situation like such a threat? The Stars are now 97-57 since August 1 of last year, their best record in a 154-game span in their history. They have won 23 of their last 29 games and are 42-13 when they score first..
