Stars fall to the Firebirds

Ray Brewer

Saturday, Aug. 23, 1997 | 9:17 a.m.

The Phoenix Firebirds are absolutely dominating the Pacific Coast League's Southern Division. That didnUt change Friday at Cashman Field.

Entering Friday night's game with the Stars, the Firebirds were 32-5 in their last 37 games and held a 17 game lead over the second-place Stars in the standings.

By the eveningUs end the Firebirds scored three runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth, defeating the Stars 8-4. With the loss, the Stars fall to 51-80 overall and 26-34 for the second part of the season.

RWe had several mistakes that let the game get out of hand," manager Jerry Royster said. "We missed on some chances to score some runs with one out and the bases loaded."

The Stars stranded eight runners on base, levaing the bases loaded in the fifth and ninth innings.

After Angelo Encarnacion doubled and scored in the third inning to give the Stars a 1-0 lead, Phoenix answered back with three runs on four hits in the fifth inning and five runs on four hits in the sixth.

In the bottom of the fifth, shortstop Jorge Velandia and Encarnacion (4-for-4 on the evening) had back-to-back singles and Stoney Briggs walked to load the bases. But Dave Hajek hit into a double play to end the inning.

"My expectations aren't that much," Royster said. " All I ask the guys is to go out as hard as you can until you run out of gas."

Medina (4-5) took the loss for the Stars, as he gave up seven runs on nine hits with five walks in six innings of work.

The Stars will battle the Firebirds in the third game of a four game set Saturday at Cashman Field at 7:05 p.m. Scheduled starters are Marino Castillo (5-5, 5.30) for the Stars and Joe Roa (2-0, 3.55) for the Firebirds.