Paolini, Peterson homer backing Sanchez' strong Sunday pitching performance

HUNTSVILLE, ALA. (JULY 6, 2014) - The Generals (6-12, 37-50) earned their second straight victory, 8-5 over the Huntsville Stars (8-10, 54-34), behind another good start from Victory Sanchez (4-4, 4.11) home runs by Dan Paolini and D.J. Peterson.

Sanchez impressed again going seven innings and allowed just two runs on four hits. The 19-year-old also struck out four Stars as he earned his fourth win of the season and first in nearly a month. He had plenty of help from the offense as everyone in the order had a hit except Jack Marter (0x3, RBI), who did have an RBI in the contest. Dan Paolini (3x4, R, HR, 3 RBI, BB) and D.J. Peterson (2x5, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI) homered which totalled five of the eight Jackson runs.

Jackson surrendered the lead early as the Stars dented the scoreboard first against Sanchez. Robinzon Diaz singled to score Kentrail Davis with two outs in the first and Huntsville was on top 1-0 early.

The Generals quickly took a lead of their own as Julio Morban (1x3, 2 BB) walked to begin the second. After Pat Kivlehan (1x5, 2 R) grounded into a force out, Paolini launched his fifth homer of the year to center field and Jackson had a 2-1 lead. Then Dario Pizzano (1x4, R, RBI, BB) walked and later scored on a Marder sacrifice fly and lead was 3-1 after the top of the second.

Sanchez settled down and retired 13 of the 15 batters he faced from the end of the first through the fifth inning. He then gave up a lead-off triple to Nick Shaw to start the bottom of the sixth. Nick Ramirez walked then Diaz hit into a sacrifice fly that scored Shaw and cut the lead to 3-2. But Sanchez limited the damage as he retired the next two batters to retire the side.

Jackson created some breathing room in the eighth as Peterson and Kivlehan had base hits that sandwiched a Morban strike out. Peterson came in to score on a single from Paolini and Pizzano followed by grounding into a force play that brought home Kivlehan and the Generals had a 5-2 lead.

The Jackson bats were not done yet as Leon Landry (1x5, R) led off the ninth with a double and Ketel Marte (1x5, R) reached on an error. Then Peterson launched his second Jackson home run, a three-run blast that gave his teammates an 8-2 lead.

In the bottom half the inning Huntsville put runners on first and third with one out and Shea Vucinich doubled home Erik Komatsu and Joey Paciorek. Vucinich then came around to score on an error, but 8-5 is the closest the Stars would get.

Kyle Hunter (2-3, 4.53) and David Colvin (0-1, 4.03) finished out the game going 1.0 inning a piece, Hunter's was scoreless as Colvin allowed three runs, but they preserved the win for Jackson.

Huntsville starter Drew Gagnon (5-4, 3.26) took the loss as he was pulled after 2.0 innings after he gave up three runs on only one hit, the homer by Paolini.

The Generals will look to win their first series in the second half as they play the Stars in the fourth game of the series Monday at Joe Davis Stadium. Tyler Pike (1-0, 1.46) will look for another impressive start as he gets the ball for Jackson and Huntsville will send Brent Suter (7-6, 3.84) to the mound to oppose him. The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and can be heard on 96.5 ESPN, TuneIn Radio and jacksongeneralsbaseball.com.