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THE BIG BLOWOUT
THE 20 GREATEST GAMES OF ALL-TIME
| The Stars rewrote the record
book in 1997 offensively. They set league records for hits, doubles, runs , runs batted in, extra base hits, and total bases, and a club record for home runs, shattering the 1986 record by 25, 164-139. Individually, league records were set by Mike Neill with 129 runs scored, and total bases by Mike Coolbaugh with 303, and tied by Mike Coolbaugh with 132 RBIs. The pyrotechnics at the plate hit a peak in July during a 6-game win streak from July 15-22, in which the Stars, in six games mind you, scored 76 runs, hit. .372, and slugged 14 HRs and In the middle of this was the biggest blowout in Stars history. Games like this are just plain fun to watch. It wasn't too fun for a rather big Joe Davis crowd to sit through. It was a muggy 88° with practically no breeze. The Stars were feeling pretty good with two days off after beating Carolina, 14-6 and Steve Connelly, out since early June, was ready to give the pitching-beleagurered Stars some relief with his return from the disabled list. In fact, the Stars released pitcher Bob Baxter before the start of the Chattanooga series to make room for him. D.T Cromer's 2-run shot with 2 out in the bottom of the first didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. But it was just the start of something big. The Stars were on their way to tying a Southern League record, and breaking a club record, for home runs hit in this game. Miguel Tejada lead off the 2nd inning with a homer, then following singles by Dave Newhan and Ramon Hernandez, muscular Rob DeBoer delivered another blast to make the score, 6-0. In the 3rd, Mike Coolbaugh led off with a home run and with the bases loaded and one out, Ryan Christenson, in his debut at Joe Davis Stadium, hit John Courtright's 2-1 changeup for a grand slam home run to make it 11-0. Five home runs already. Now you had a laugher and it took just three innings. Not only that, Bill King was holding the top hitting team in the league to just two hits. The Stars threatened to score some more in the 4th, leaving runners on the corners, but in the 5th, they let loose again. D.T. Cromer singled in two runs, then Tejada stepped up to the plate and hit home run number six --- a 3-run blast to make it 16-0. Five innings. Six home runs. Sixth inning. One more. After Ryan Christenson singled in Rob DeBoer, who doubled to left-center with one out, Ben Grieve came up with runners on the corners and hit a mammoth blast to right and that made it 20-0. It was the first Stars game I'd ever been to where they reached that mark. Now they were within reach of the record 25 runs Memphis had scored against Nashville in a game in 1993 and total bases. Ultimately, the Stars, with 47, fell short of that record by three. When the carnage ended, the Stars had set season-high and club record marks for runs, hits, RBIs, and total bases. They were a sizzling 17-9 in July, scoring a club record 224 runs, and hitting .310. With better pitching (the club ERA that month was 5.29 --- tops for the season in a season notorious for its bad pitching), one can only wonder what a record the Stars might have had in July. But it was an unbelievable month that was important to a second-half title. The Stars would win the Western Division in an exciting five-game series, but Mother Nature turned on her in Game Two vs. Greenville for the Championship, and they would eventually lose that series in five. |
| July 18, 1997 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Chattanooga | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 0 | |
| Huntsville | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | x | 22 | 23 | 1 |
WP- Bill King (6-4)
LP- Brian Lott (5-5)
| CHATTANOOGA | ab r h bi | HUNTSVILLE | ab r h bi |
| Broach, cf | 4 0 0 0 | Christenson, cf | 6 3 4 6 |
| Williams, 2b | 4 1 2 0 | Neill, lf | 4 2 2 0 |
| Rose, 3b | 4 1 2 1 | Walker, lf | 1 0 0 0 |
| Murray, dh | 4 1 1 1 | Grieve, rf | 4 3 1 3 |
| Towle, c | 4 0 1 0 | Cromer, 1b | 5 2 2 4 |
| Allen, 1b | 4 0 1 1 | Coolbaugh, 3b | 6 1 2 1 |
| Griffey, lf | 4 0 0 0 | Tejada, ss | 5 3 3 4 |
| Coughlin, rf | 3 0 0 0 | Newhan, 2b | 6 3 5 0 |
| Presto, ss | 3 0 0 0 | Hernandez, c | 5 2 1 0 |
| DeBoer, dh | 4 3 3 4 | ||
34 3 7 0 |
46 22 23 22 |
||
| E- Tejada... DP- Huntsville 1... LOB- Chattanooga 4, Huntsville 7... 2b- Williams, DeBoer, Rose 2, Newhan 2... HR- Murray (21, off King), Christenson (1, off Courtright)... Cromer (13, off Lott), Coolbaugh (22, off Lott), Tejada 2 (off Courtright, Lott), DeBoer (9, off Lott)... SB- Newhan (2)... CS- Coolbaugh. | |||
| CHATTANOOGA | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ||
| LOTT (L. 5-5) | 2 1/3 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | ||
| COURTRIGHT | 3 2/3 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| JEAN | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | ||
| HUNTSVILLE | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ||
| KING (W. 6-4) | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | ||
| CONNELLY | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| U- Marquez, Parrish, and Billings | |||||||||
| Time: 2:34 | Attendance: 5,297 | ||||||||