Biscuits use long ball to even series with Stars
Longoria snapped a scoreless tie and sparked a six-run rally when he hit the first pitch of the fifth inning over the center-field wall for his second homer of the postseason. Coleman then was plunked by starter Corey Thurman. He moved to third on Patrick Breen's single and scored on Ryan Christianson's sacrifice fly.
Pridie singled to left field, moving Breen to third. Elliot Johnson plated Breen with a double to left and Brignac knocked in Pridie and Johnson with a double of his own. John Raburn capped the inning with an RBI double to left.
"The homer gave the team a morale boost and got the inning started right away," Longoria said. "I was sitting on a change-up, but he made a mistake, got a slider up and I was able to hit it well.
"I had never faced [Thurman] before and was just trying to feel him out in my first at-bat, but I had a good feeling heading into the second at-bat," the 20-year-old third baseman added. "He had us fooled early in the game with his offspeed stuff, but we changed our approach and were no longer chasing his pitches. We wised up and were being more patient."
Montgomery starter Andy Sonnanstine (2-0) surrendered four runs on nine hits over seven innings. The 23-year-old right-hander struck out six and walked two en route to his second straight postseason victory.
Pridie, who was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a walk, slugged his first postseason dinger in the eighth. Longoria scored three times and hit a solo homer in the fifth, and Coleman added a two-run shot in the seventh for the Biscuits, who pounded out 12 hits.
"I think we have huge momentum going home," Longoria said. "It would have been a real tough bus ride home if we had not won. We made too many mistakes on Tuesday [when Montgomery committed five errors] and barely lost, so we knew we would come out and play much better on Wednesday. We put the loss behind us. We didn't let it linger."
The Stars scored all of their runs in the fifth. Jeffrey Eure led off with a homer over the left-field fence. Two batters later, Ozzie Chavez singled and Steve Moss followed with a double. Breen's fielding error allowed Chavez to score and Moss to move to third. Callix Crabbe followed with an RBI groundout, and Ryan Braun capped the inning with his first postseason homer.
Eure and Chavez each finished up with two hits apiece.
Thurman (1-1) was charged with six runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings. The 27-year-old right-hander struck out seven and walked two. Thurman struck out seven of the first eight batters he faced before getting roughed up in the fifth.
Montgomery hosts Game 3 at 8:05 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Chip Haunss is a contributor to MLB.com.