Former Vanderbilt star Zander Weil gave Chattanooga their fourth straight win.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Chattanooga Lookouts outfielder Zander Wiel belted a walk-off home run to give the Lookouts the 3-2 win over the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Wiel's blast was his first home run of the year and extended his hitting streak to nine games.
Before Wiel's late inning heroics, starting pitcher Zack Littell was the star for the Lookouts. Littell would leave the game in the sixth after retiring the first two hitters of the inning.
In his 5 2/3 innings he allowed just the one earned run on three hits and a walk, while striking out eight. Of his 91 pitches, 59 went for strikes including 15 swinging (an excellent 25.4% percentage). Littell didn't get the win, but he did lower his ERA to 3.86 on the season.
On offense the Lookouts were powered by the long ball with three solo home runs. In the second T.J. White kicked things off with a blast to dead center field. After the JumboShrimp tied it up in the fourth, Nick Gordon launched a towering homer to give the Lookouts the 2-1 lead.
Left-hander Anthony McIver came on to record the final out of the sixth and would add a scoreless seventh. He allowed two hits, walked two, and struck out one.
Todd Van Steensel came on for the eighth inning and worked around a double with two strikeouts to keep the 2-1 lead intact for Chattanooga.
The Lookouts stuck with Van Steensel in the ninth and things got very interesting. A triple to the leadoff man put the games tying run only 90-feet away, then a hit batter put the go-ahead run on base with no outs. A squeeze play tied the game at two and was followed by flyout for the second out, but another hit batter then an errant throw on a pickoff attempt put the runners on second and third.
Steensel was able to recover and picked up a strikeout to end the inning at 2-2. In the bottom of the inning, Wiel clubbed his first home run of the season to send the Lookouts' fans home as winners.
Box
Wednesday is a doubleheader with the first game starting at 5:15 p.m. Both contests will be seven inning games. Tickets for the contest are good for both games.
Starting pitcher Zack Littell struck out eight and walked one over 5 2/3 innings.
photo by Tim Evearitt