CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – West Tennessee and Chattanooga battled Wednesday afternoon before a crowd of 2,610 at AT&T Field. The Diamond Jaxx staved-off several comeback attempts to come away victorious, 6-5.
West Tenn (12-19) drew first blood in the first on a Johan Limonta RBI single, but the Lookouts (13-18) countered in the bottom portion of the inning with a run of their own on a trio of single from Sean Henry, Justin Turner, and Chris Valaika.
Solo shots from Gregory Halman and Erick Monzon in the fifth and sixth inning, respectively, gave West Tennessee a 3-1 edge.
Chattanooga crept closer in the sixth by scoring their second run. Drew Stubbs began the inning with a single and made his way to second on a Chris Denove single. A double-steal attempt resulted in an errant throw by catcher Adam Moore, allowing the speedy Stubbs to score on the play.
West Tenn added much needed insurance runs in the seventh, when a two-out double by Limonta brought home Thomas Hubbard and Michael Wilson.
Tonys Gutierrez blasted a solo shot over the right field wall to cut the deficit to 5-3 for the Lookouts.
The Diamond Jaxx made it 6-3 in the eighth. Halman did the damage with a two-out RBI single.
The Lookouts added another run in the eighth. With one out, Denove reached first on an error by third baseman Matt Mangini. Henry pushed Denove to third by hitting a double to left. Turner followed with a ground out to score Denove.
Down 6-4 going into the ninth, Chattanooga closed to within a run but ultimately came-up short. With two outs, Eymann doubled and made his way home on a Stubbs single. Right fielder Wilson bobbled the ball on the play, allowing Stubbs to advance to second. With the tying run on second, Michael DeJesus hit a ball sharply to the first base side, but first baseman Hubbard made the play with a flip to pitcher Shawn Kelley, who notched his fifth save in the process.
There were five errors in the contest: three by West Tenn and two by Chattanooga.
Denny Stark (3-3) earned the win by throwing two innings of one-run ball for the Diamond Jaxx.
James Avery, who yielded five runs (three earned) in 6.2 innings, dropping to 6-7 on the season.
Lookouts Highlights
- Sean Henry went 2-for-4 and 1 run scored;
- Chris Valaika was 2-for-4 with 1 RBI;
- Drew Stubbs went 2-for-5 with 1 RBI and 1 run scored;
- Eric Eymann went 2-for-5 with 1 run scored;
- Chris Denove was 2-for-4 with 1 run scored;
- Justin Turner went 1-for-5 with 1 RBI;
- Thomas Collaro was 1-for-3.
- Reliever Lee Tabor collected several "ones" in one inning pitched:
1 hit, 1 run (earned), 1 walk, 1 strikeout, and 1 wild pitch.
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Chattanooga will continue with their five-game homestand against the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx at 6:15 P.M., Thursday.
The two teams will play a double-header consisting of two seven-inning games.
Tickets for these games or any other Lookouts home game can be purchased at the Lookouts Box Office at AT&T Field, online at www.lookouts.com, or by calling (423) 267-4849.
Groundskeeper Bo Henley (black shirt) and his outstanding crew smooth out the infield dirt between innings of Wednesday's game.
- Photo2 by Tim Evearitt