The Greeneville Astros finally won a close one, and Manager Rodney Linares summed up his team's feelings pretty well.

"It's about time," he grinned after his Astros had nipped Princeton 3-2 Tuesday night at Pioneer Park. Greeneville is now 2-4 on the year in one-run games.

All three of the games in the Princeton series were one-run contests, but the Rays had won the first two and were on the brink of rallying back in the series finale before Brian Wabick came in from the bullpen and got the Astros out of a ninth inning jam.

"I've said before, we've only been a play or two away from winning," Linares said. "Today we played good defense. We had a couple of chances to score some more runs, and we're still a little sloppy on that side, but it was a good win for us."

Neither team made an error in the well-played game. Princeton outhit the Astros 10-7, but Greeneville scored all three of their runs early in the contest, then got behind their solid pitching with good defense to make those three runs enough.

"Any time you play errorless ball it's a plus," Linares added. "We didn't get on the field much lately (for practice) because of the rain. But the guys work hard. Every game is important, but it's a great confidence-builder to get a win in a close one."

Greeneville scored all three of its runs in the first two innings. They got four solid shutout innings from starter Luis Cruz, then Wander Alvino came on to hurl the next four frames. Alvino got into trouble in the eighth when the Rays scored twice, then he gave up a lead-off single in the ninth before Linares went to the bullpen for Wabick.

"Alvino's a starter," Linares said. "We're 'piggybacking' him with Cruz because we feel we've got six starters. He's done a good job. I've got confidence in him, and I'm confident in all my guys in the bullpen."

Ramon Novas got the lead-off hit in the ninth, his third safe blow of the game. Wabick came on and Justin Reynolds grounded into a force out at second. Then Wabick came up with a big play when he caught Reynolds leading off the bag too far at first and picked him off for the second out. D.J. Jones then grounded into a routine infield putout to end the game.

Those fans who arrived late didn't get to see a torrid start by the Astros, who collected a walk and three straight hits in the bottom of the first to collect a pair of runs. Wilton Infante walked and Devon Torrence, Ebert Rosario and Kody Hinze all followed with hits. Rosario and Hinze had RBIs.

The third Greeneville run came thanks to a home run by Rene Garcia, who was getting his first start of the season at catcher. He had batted only twice all year before catching up with a Kevin Chavez pitch and lofting it over the left field fence to lead off the second and give the Astros the 3-0 advantage.

The Astros had another golden opportunity to score in the bottom of the third as they had runners (Torrence and Rosario) on third and second with nobody out. But Princeton got out of the mess with no damage done, thanks to an unassisted double play by second baseman Diogenes Luis, who caught a hard line drive by Renzo Tello and stepped on the second base sack to double up Rosario.

Greeneville's Luis Cruz put up all goose eggs on the board through his four innings of work, allowing only two hits. Alvino was in good shape until the eighth, when the Rays rallied for two runs.

With one out, three straight Princeton batters managed base hits, with Burt Reynolds' hit scoring one run. Elias Ortero got the fourth hit of the frame and drove in the second run. The tying run was on third when Alvino coaxed an infield grounder for the third out.

That set the stage for the ninth and the good relief work by Wabick.

Torrence, Rosario and Garcia had two hits each for the Astros. Novas' three hits led the Rays, who saw their winning streak snapped at five.

Greeneville now goes to West Division leading Elizabethton for a game tonight before returning home on Thursday to meet the Twins in a 7 p.m. contest. Thursday is the July 4th fireworks spectacular scheduled after the game. The Astros hit the road for a weekend series at Bluefield.