Stars use lumber to beat Redhawks

OKLAHOMA CITY --- The Las Vegas Stars banged out 13 hits and scored 11 runs in a 11-9 victory over the Oklahoma Redhawks here Tuesday night.

Not surprisingly, Eddie Williams played a key role in the Stars' offensive surge.

Williams, who hit two home runs in a Las Vegas loss a night earlier, belted another Tuesday night and had three hits, three runs scored and two RBI as the Stars (31-32) salvaged the finale of the four-game series with the Redhawks (37-26) at Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark.

Williams, who spent almost a month with the San Diego Padres this season, now has 11 home runs for the Stars this year and has 48 in his Las Vegas career. He needs to hit three more homers to pass Rob Nelson (50) into third place on the all-time Stars home run list and 13 more to eclipse Dave Staton's career home run mark of 60 set between 1991-94.

The Stars also got big games offensively from shortstop Juan Melo (2 for 4, 2 runs, 2 RBI) and catcher Jimmy Gonzalez, who hit a three-run home run to left to highlight a five-run second inning for Las Vegas. It was the first home run of his Stars' career for Gonzalez, who was promoted from double-A Mobile to replace Mandy Romero after Romero was called up to San Diego two weeks ago.

Stars right-hander Matt Clement (6-5), who was so dominating in a 13-strikeout 8-3 win at Salt Lake last Thursday, squandered an early 5-1 lead and allowed six runs in just four-plus innings. Reliever Bubba Dixon (1-1), despite yielding three runs in just an inning on the mound himself, picked up the victory.

Las Vegas has a day off today before opening a four-game series at New Orleans on Thursday night.

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