On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon a slim announced crowd of 2,434 watched the Lookouts battle back to beat Mobile the second straight day, 6-5.
Andrew Beattie started in center field in place of Kenny Kelly who was called up Tuesday to play with AAA Louisville. Beattie was 0-for-5 in his first game back since May 17th.
The BayBears out hit the Looks, 13 to 10, but stranded 12 base runners in a losing effort. Chattanooga left 7 runners on.
Charlie Manning pitched 5.1 innings (he struck out 8 hitters) but Brad Salmon (2-1) was the winning pitcher for Chattanooga in relief.
Jesse Gutierrez led Chattanooga with three hits and three RBI.
Gutierrez’s eighth home run of the year, a two-run blast in the first inning, gave Chattanooga a short-lived 2-0 lead.
Manning struggled with his control in the second inning and the BayBears took advantage of a couple bloop singles to take the lead, 4-2.
The Lookouts came back with a run in third inning when pitcher Chris Rojas uncorked a wild pitch with a runner at third. Mobile 4 Chatt 3
Manning singled to lead off the fifth but was forced at second when Andrew Beattie bunted too hard to first baseman Greg Cain. After William Bergolla flew out to center, Edwin Encarnacion reached base on an error by shortstop Ronnie Merrill. Chattanooga made Mobile pay for the error as Gutierrez drove in Beattie with the tying run. Mobile 4 Chatt 4
Mobile regained the lead in the sixth inning thanks to a long double by Ben Johnson off reliever Brad Salmon. All five Mobile runs were charged to Manning. Mobile 5 Chatt 4
Salmon pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth. He struck out four BayBears in 2.2 innings.
The Lookouts took the lead in the bottom of the seventh scoring two runs. Bergolla singled to left (3rd hit of the game) and with two outs Gutierrez got a bloop hit single, his third of the game driving in the tying run. Chattanooga took the lead on Dionys Cesar’s single. Chatt 6 Mobile 5
Todd Coffey picked up his seventh save of the season in the ninth inning after giving up just single.
Lookouts Hitting Stats
Beattie 0-5
Bergolla 3-4
Encarnacion 0-4
Gutierrez 3-3
Cesar 1-3
Bannon 1-4
- Moreta 0-0
Durham 0-3
Peterson 1-4
Manning 1-2
- Salmon 0-1
- Wilson, T. 0-1
- Coffey 0-0
RBI: Gutierrez 3, Cesar 1, Bannon 1,
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The final game of the series will be played Thursday night at BellSouth Park at 7:15 p.m.
The Lookouts have a short road series with four games at Huntsville before returning home to take on second place Jacksonville in a four games series – June 8-11.