From the Tennessee Smokies Media Dept:
Sevierville, TN – The Tennessee Smokies dropped their third game in a row to the Huntsville Stars on Monday night at Smokies Park by the score of 9-7. Smokies starting pitcher Mark Holliman (0-1) gave up five home runs to Huntsville Stars batters through 4 2/3 innings of work, which was too much for the Smokies to overcome despite a two home run night for centerfielder Tyler Colvin. The loss dropped the Smokies to 15-23 on the season while Huntsville improved to 27-11.
For the first time in the series, Tennessee jumped out to the early lead thanks in part to Colvin’s first home run of the game, his fourth of the season. Colvin rocketed a 3-2 pitch from Stars starting pitcher David Welch (5-1) over the right field wall to give the Smokies a 1-0 lead. Huntsville later countered with two runs in the top of the third inning off Holliman to claim a 2-1 advantage.
The Smokies bats came alive again in the bottom half of the third. Back to back singles by Nate Spears and Matt Matulia brought Colvin to the plate, and he delivered once again. Colvin drilled a home run to deep left center field, his second of the night, to put the Smokies back on top 4-2.
The lead was short-lived however, as Holliman was chased for six runs over the next two innings of work.. Huntsville smacked four home runs off the Smokies starter over a two inning span to claim an 8-4 lead. The Stars added another run in the top of the seventh to increase their lead to five runs.
But the Smokies mounted a seventh inning rally to make things interesting again. With Welch out of the game, the Smokies offense teed off on Stars reliever David Johnson. Nate Spears, who was 3 for 5 on the night, tripled to left center field to score Matt Camp and cut the lead to four. Spears came in to score on a deep sacrifice fly off the bat of Colvin for this fifth RBI of the evening. Jake Fox later cracked a solo shot to deep left field, and the Smokies were back in business trailing by a score of 9-7.
The Stars bullpen came through, however, and shut the Smokies down in the eighth and ninth innings. Joe Bateman and Juan Sandoval combined to allow just two hits and no runs, with Sandoval earning his second save of the season. The Smokies banged out fourteen hits on the night, with multiple hit night for Colvin, Spears, Fox and Doug Deeds.
Game four of the five game series against the Huntsville Stars will take place on Tuesday night at 7:15 pm. The Smokies will send left-hander James Russell (0-0, 2.70) to the mound to face off against Huntsville left-hander Brea Wright (1-3, 3.71). The series will continue through Wednesday afternoon
