Wednesday, April 8, 1998 | 9:16 a.m.
line By Steve Guiremand LAS VEGAS SUN
Stars manager Jerry Royster was naturally disappointed that his team lost its season-opener Tuesday night, but felt his team didn't play as poorly as the 9-4 score might have indicated. "Their weren't a lot of mistakes," Royster said. "We had one error (by third baseman George Arias and we didn't have any base-running mistakes until the last inning." Royster was referring to an apparent brain freeze by catcher Mandy Romero, who inexplicably was caught stealing second with his team trailing by five runs after leading off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Did Romero miss a sign? "I don't know what he did," said Royster. "I'm just trying to forget about it. ... That's the kind of stuff that happens on Opening Day sometimes. I'm not a big Opening Day fan. Too much crazy stuff seems to happen. When we get (Tuesday night) and (tonight) out of the play, I think everybody will settle down and just start playing baseball again." ... Right-handed pitcher Will Cunnane underwent an MRI on his sore right elbow Tuesday but Royster still hadn't heard the results by gametime. Because the Stars are already at the 23-man roster limit, nobody will be called up from AA Mobile to replace Cunnane's spot on the roster. Cunnane was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Monday. ... Edmonton shortstop Miguel Tejada, rated the top minor league shortstop prospect by Baseball America and one of the 10 best minor league prospects in the country, sat out Tuesday night's game with a broken finger. ... The loss was the ninth in a row for the Stars on Opening Day. You have to go all the way back to 1989 for the Stars' last Opening Day victory. Las Vegas defeated the Portland Beavers, 11-5, that day at Cashman Field. Las Vegas is now just 5-11 in opening games in its history. ... Hitting star for Las Vegas on Opening Day was third baseman George Arias, who went 3-for-3 with a home run, double and two RBI.
Upcoming games
The Stars will send left-hander Heath Murray (6-8, 5.45 in 1997) to the mound tonight to face Trappers right-hander Jay Witasick (3-2, 4.28 in 1997) in the second game of the series at 7:05.
Matt Clement (0-0, 0.00) will be opposed by Edmonton right-hander Ariel Prieto (6-8, 5.04) Thursday at 7:05 p.m. and Donne Wall (8-7, 3.85) will meet Edmonton's 6-7 Blake Stein (11-9, 4.87) in a battle of right-handers in Friday's series finale at 7:05 p.m.
Attendance
Thursday's crowd: 5,289
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