A crowd of over 5,000 was on hand for the season opener.
photo by Tim Evearitt
The Lookouts' season officially started on Thursday night, when they played the first game of a five-game series against the Double-A affiliate for the Seattle Mariners, the Jackson Generals. The Lookouts lost their home opener, 12-7 in 11 innings, but played in front of a raucous crowd of 5,178 at AT&T Field.
After a quiet two innings the Jackson Generals jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when John Hicks reached base on an error. Three batters later, Jack Marder was able to hit a single into the outfield, and Hicks slid around the tag at home to score the run.
When the fifth inning rolled around, Lookouts pitcher, Carlos Frias got into a bases loaded jam.
Frias was able to get Leon Landry to foul out to the third baseman for the second out of the inning, but Jabari Blash was next up to the plate, and he hit a grand slam to right center field, to give the Generals a sizable lead.
The Lookouts were able to answer back in the bottom of the inning and close the gap. Scott Schebler launched a two-run home run very deep to right field, to make the score 5-2. The Lookouts were able to tack on one more run with a sac fly to center field by Ozzie Martinez before the inning was over, chasing the starter for the Generals, Trevor Miller, out of the game after four and two-thirds innings.
The Generals widened their lead in the sixth inning, running the score up to 7-3, but the Lookouts weren't going down without a fight. After having the first two go down in order in the bottom of the eighth, Scott Schebler recorded a single and Noel Cuevas worked a walk. Chris O'Brien then drove one deep to center off of Generals' reliever Stephen Pryor, to bring the Lookouts within one run of tying the game.
After Pryor's replacement, Stephen Kohlscheen, came in for the Generals Jeremy Hazelbaker was able to get his second hit of the game. In the bottom of the 9th, the team's rally continued when Daniel Mayora got his first hit, a home run to left field, to tie the game at seven. With that game-tying blast, it was on to extra-innings for opening night.
Both team's put zeros on the board in the tenth, but the Generals added five runs in the top of the 11th to secure their first win of the season.
Box Score
Friday, both team's will return to action for the second game of the series at 7:15 p.m. Right-hander Stephen Landazuri will face off against Lookouts righty Duke Von Schamann.
Scott Schebler's two-run homer was the first of the year for a Lookouts' player. Chris O'Brien and Daniel Mayora also hit home runs in the game.
photo by Tim Evearitt