The Starbuck Stars amateur baseball team got the 2024 season underway with a 4-3 loss at Atwater, Sunday afternoon.  The Stars, coming off an 8-9 season from a year ago, were also set to play at Kensington, Saturday, but that game was eventually called off.

This week, the Stars are set to host NLS, Friday, and Paynesville, Sunday, for the home openers.

Last year, the Stars had their season end with a loss to Regal in the consolation bracket of the County Line playoffs. 

The previous season, the Stars advanced to the Region 4A Tourney, going 1-2 at the region tourney and finishing 17-8 overall.

Darion Alexander led the Stars last year with a .460 batting average and .563 on-base percentage among players with at least 20 plate appearances.

Austin Ver Steeg was next at .350, followed by Matt Gruber (.273), Austin Friese (.268), Torii Johnson (.237) and Michael Gruber (.233).

As a team, the Stars batted .248 with an on-base team percentage of .334.

Darion Alexander went 4-2 on the mound for the Stars, while Michael Gruber and Drew Olsonawski were both 1-0, Austin Ver Steeg was 2-4, Mitchell Gruber was 0-1 and Aaron Ver Steeg was 0-2.

•  The Stars fell to Atwater in the season opener, 4-3, as Atwater scored all its runs in its first at-bat and the Stars put all three of their runs across in their final at-bat.

Darion Alexander, PJ Johnson, Noah Jensen, Jackson Hendrickson, Drew Olsonawski, Mike Andreas and Connor Erickson had one hit each for the Stars, while Jensen, Hendrickson and Olsonawski scored the three runs for Starbuck.

Josh Kingery had two of the Chuckers’ six hits, while Doug Kingery earned the pitching victory, allowing two hits and one walk over seven innings with nine strikeouts.

Four pitchers saw action for the Stars, including Austin Ver Steeg, who started and took the loss for Starbuck, giving up all four runs.

at Atwater 4, Stars 3

Stars (0-1) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 — 3 7 0

Atwater 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 x — 4 6 2

HITTING:  STARS-Darion Alexander 1-for-5, PJ Johnson 1-for-4, hbp; Noah Jensen 1-for-3, 1 run, bb; Jackson Hendrickson 1-for-4, 1 run; Drew Olsonawski 1-for-4, 1 run; Mike Andreas 1-for-1, RBI; Connor Erickson 1-for-4, RBI   . . . ATW-J. Kingery 2-for-3, 1 run, bb, double, sb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Austin Ver Steeg (L)  3-4-4-4-1-4; Darion Alexander 3-0-0-0-2-4; Drew Olsonawski 1-1-0-0-1-2; Colin Richards 1-1-0-0-0-1 . . . ATW-D. Kingery (W)  7-2-0-0-1-9; K. Holtz 2-5-3-2-2-2