Down 3-0 twice, Stars shine with monster comebacks vs. Rays

By ECS Staff
Updated: June 12, 2018

2018 SAN DIEGO STARS BASEBALL

Special East County Sports.com

SANTEE (6-11-2018) — The math was pretty simple.

The San Diego Stars opened the season with a 4-game sweep of the San Diego Maverick, which in turn blew out the Irvine Rays (Signature Baseball Academy) on Saturday.

Let’s just call it an understandable lack of focus to start both games of Sunday’s (June 10) doubleheader, when the Rays sprinted to 3-0 leads in the first inning — Stare owner/manager Mickey Deutschman didn’t need to say a word.

The Stars bounced back by scoring seven runs in the third inning of Game 1, then posted 21 unanswered runs in Game 2 – featuring a 12-run explosion in the third – to sweep the Rays, 13-5 and 21-3 over the Rays, a member of the Western Baseball Association’s North Division.

Let’s just say, if there is a deadlock between the ballclubs somewhere down the road, the Stars (7-0) definitely own the tiebreaker.

The comebacks were ignited by Dallas Seidel, who slugged his summer-leading fourth homer to center field in the first. Two frames later, Seidel and catcher Jake Sargent (in his Stars debut) each registered 2-run doubles, while Shane Coleman added a 2-run single.

Meanwhile, Alex Golembiewski came off the bench in his Stars debut to slug a pair doubles., then pitched three innings of 1-hit ball to garner the save. Deutschman had plans to convert “the G-Man” to a pitcher, but by driving a pair of balls deep to the fence, some re-thinking may be in order.

In Game 2, San Diego batted around twice in the big inning, sending 18 batters to the plate to snap a 3-3 tie. The frame started on a leadoff homer by Johnny Valdez (3-for-4, 4 runs), while Clayton Lewis recorded four RBI in the inning with two runs scoring on his double and single.

An inning later, Joey Krug hit a 2-run shot, his second home run of the summer.

Lewis finished with five RBI by going 4-for-5 at the plate, while J.J. Jocobo reached base all five trips to the plate with three hits and reaching twice on errors (on hard-hit balls).

In seven games this summer, San Diego has scored 90 runs (12.9 average), reaching double-figures in all but one outing.

The Stars continue their monster 15-game homestand Tuesday, again meeting the Dovetail Bats in a WBA National Division contest. Game time is 5 p.m. at West Hills High School.