The Mississippi Braves were, perhaps, a few inches from tying Friday’s game against Huntsville.

Such is the difference between winning and losing.

Matthew Kennelly lined out to third with the tying run on second base, and Huntsville escaped with a 3-2 victoryover the M-Braves on Friday night.

Mississippi pulled within a run in the eighth inning when Dan Nelson hit a solo homer, and leadoff man Jordan Kreke singled to start the ninth. Kreke was bunted to second base with two outs when Kennelly’s rocket was snagged by third baseman Zelous Wheeler to end the game.

Huntsville took the lead for good with two runs in the fourth inning. Sergio Miranda led off with a single and scored on Martin Maldonado’s double to put the Stars ahead 2-1. Maldonado then scored on a base hit by Matt Cline for a 3-1 lead.

That rally made a hard-luck loser of M-Braves starter Arodys Vizcaino. The right-hander went seven innings and allowed three runs on eight hits. He struck out four.

Dan Merklinger threw six innings for Huntsville and allowed one run on three hits to get the win. Robert Wooten pitched the last 1 2/3 innings for his third save.