The Chattanooga Lookouts (18-28) scored their runs in bunches as they were able to even their series against the Mississippi Braves (25-21) at one game each with a 15-4 win Thursday night.
The Atlanta Braves, the parent-club of Mississippi, is known for great pitching but their Double-A affiliate had major problems with Chattanooga at AT&T Field.
The bats caught fire early, sending Lookouts marching around the bases quickly. Down one run, O’Koyea Dickson led off the bottom of the second by taking a free trip to first base on four straight pitches. The first hit of the game was tagged by Chris O’Brien when he blooped one into dead center. After a strikeout by Brian Cavazos-Galvez, Daniel Mayora and Noel Cuevas rifled singles on back-to-back pitches to score two runs and take the lead.
The floodgates were broken wide open by Ryan Adams, who is making the most of Erisbel Arruebarrena 's call up . Adams is getting the start at second base while Darnell Sweeney slides over to shortstop to fill Arruebarrena’s spot on the field. With the bases loaded, he was able to bring them all home on another short fly ball to left-center. Although the ball didn't travel far in the second inning, each time falling in front of the outfielders, the placement didn’t matter much as they dropped in for hits and sent runners across the plate to give the Lookouts the 5-1 lead.
It was an early four-run lead, and the Mississippi Braves chipped away slowly but surely, dwindling the Lookouts' lead down to just one run in the fourth. That was the case until Sweeney made sure that his presence was felt. With the bases loaded the infielder belted a grand slam 390 feet to right-center, taking the lead to a more comfortable 9-4 margin.
The momentum of the game seemed to swing when that ball left the yard and the scoring continued for Chattanooga . Scott Schebler was the last of all the starting position players to get a hit, rocketing one to right-center that took an odd bounce off the top of the wall for a triple to score Sweeney from second and lengthen the lead to seven.
The Lookouts nearly batted around in the seventh, bringing eight to the plate and scoring four more, the final two credited to Ryan Adams. He came into the game with only two RBIs, but recorded five more to add to the total. Adams also raised his average from .289 to .306, making him the only Lookouts ' hitter to have an average over .300. Those were the last two runs scored in the game, as the final scored ended up being 15-4.
Friday night at the ballpark means that it’s fireworks night, the first of two times this weekend to catch the pyrotechnics. The Lookouts aim to light up the night sky during the game as well, with lefty Chris Reed (3-2, 2.19) looking to take back the lead for most strikeouts in the Southern League from Pensacola hurler Robert Stephenson. Game time is set for 7:15 p.m. and facing Reed on the mound will be righty J.R. Graham (0-2, 4.40).