Travis Harrison was the hitting star Monday for the Lookouts.
photo by Tim Evearitt
With the game tied at six in the bottom of the ninth inning Travis Harrison drove in Levi Michael, with his third double of the game, to clinch the 7-6 win over the Birmingham Barons.
Harrison had a day. He put the Lookouts on the board with an RBI double that scored Zach Granite who singled to open the inning and moved over on a sacrifice by Levi Michael.
Harrison led off the fourth inning with his second double of the night.
Daniel Palka moved him to third on a single and Harrison scored on a Mitch Garver single. Stuart Turner loaded the bases with the third single of the inning. An error by the third baseman allowed Palka to score off of Engelb Vielma’s bat. And with two outs, Michael tripled to score Garver, Turner and Vielma, the third, fourth and fifth runs of the inning, pushing the lead to 6-2.
Aaron Slegers pitched six innings, giving up a single run in four of them and leaving with a 6-4 lead. He allowed seven hits and walked one. He struck out six.
Slegers was relieved and holds were credited to both Mike Strong and Jake Reed, who both pitched to the minimum three batters. Neither allowed a walk or hit and Reed’s defense was able to erase the base runner who was on due to Vielma’s sixth error of the season.
Nick Burdi was summoned to attempt to collect his first save of the season and coaxed a fly ball to record his first out. After walking a batter, Burdi allowed a hit and runners were on the corners. He got his second out of the inning with a swinging strikeout, but lost the save chance with the runner of first stole second and the batter followed with a ground-rule double. Burdi blew the save and the 6-4 win turned into a tie game.
Burdi retired the next batter and the Lookouts came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Michael drew a one-out walk and guess who ended the game with a two-out double? None other than Travis Harrison, who hit his third two-bagger of the day.
The team's walk-off win was their first of the year. In the rubber match of the series Ryan Eades (0-2, 6.14) takes the mound against Brandon Brennan (1-2, 10.50). Food City Tuesday is set for 7:15 p.m. with gates opening at 6:00 p.m.
The Lookouts improved to 7-12.
Box
Recap
Starting pitcher Aaron Slegers.
photo by Tim Evearitt