Kyle Wren, son of former Braves' general manager Frank Wren, drove in the winning runs in the seventh inning.
photo by Tim Evearitt
The Biloxi Shuckers earned their second consecutive victory, 5-4, over the Chattanooga Lookouts on Wednesday morning at AT&T Field before 4,125 fans (mostly youngsters). The loss dropped the Lookouts into fourth place in the Southern League's North Division.
Victor Roache blasted his fourth home run of the season over the wall in left center to give the Shuckers an early 1-0 lead in the first, but the Lookouts answered with two runs in the bottom half of the frame.
Shannon Wilkerson started things off with a single to left and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Zach Granite.
D.J. Hicks drove the runner home two batters later, with a single to left to knot the game at one. Joe Maloney cracked a double to center to drive the runner home from first to bring home the go-ahead run.
Up 2-1 the Lookouts widened their lead in the third when Zack Granite sped home on another RBI single by Hicks.
The two-run lead did not last long as Biloxi tied the game up at three in the fourth. In that frame the Shuckers plated a run on a Nick Ramirez triple. Ramirez then scored on a Tyrone Taylor single.
After two scoreless frames Biloxi snatched back the lead with two runs off Jake Reed. Kyle Wren gave Biloxi the lead in the seventh with a two-run single to center.
Biloxi's Hobbs Johnson worked a scoreless frame in the sixth, but ran into trouble in the seventh. The southpaw retired Granite on a fly out to left field, but walked Travis Harrison, gave up a single to Hicks, issued a free pass to Maloney to load the bases. Ryan Walker drove a single to left to move the runners station-to-station and cut the Shuckers' lead to one.
Ryan Walker knocked in a run to cut the Shucker's lead to one run.
In the ninth inning, a one-out single by Harrison put the tying run on base for Hicks, who popped out for the second out. A double off the third-base bag by Maloney put the tying run at third and go-ahead run at second for Walker, but Tristan Archer was able to get the second baseman on a fly out to center to secure this first save of the season.
Johnson (1-0) got the win for Shuckers and Archer earned the save. Reed (3-2) took the loss for the Lookouts.
Thursday, the Lookouts head to Jackson for a five game series with the division leading Generals starting at 8:05 p.m. RHP DJ Baxendale will get the nod for Chattanooga against Brett Ash for Jackson.
Joe Maloney went 2-for-4 with two RBI.
photo by Tim Evearitt