They played a little free baseball at AT&T Field Sunday afternoon and for the second straight day, the Chattanooga Lookouts came out with wins in both games.
Facing the Tennessee Smokies in the last game of a six-game stand, the Lookouts improved to 15-9 overall with the 7-6 win in 11 innings.
Michael DeLeon entered the game batting .154 with no home runs and one run batted in. That average will go up significantly after the third baseman from the Dominican Republic collected four hits, including the two most important of the day.
The first one came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and his team trailing 5-3. With a count of one ball and two strikes, he found the pitch he liked and hit a rocket to right that cleared the wall just inside the line to drive in Leonardo Rivas before scoring the tying run.
Then in the 11th with one out and teammate Chuckie Robinson on third, DeLeon hit another long one to dead center that Connor Myers tried to catch, but just couldn’t quite get there. DeLeon was credited with a single as Robinson trotted in from third with the winning run.
Dauri Moreta earned the victory with one inning of perfect relief in which he struck out two of the three hitters he faced. He was the fifth Chattanooga pitcher of the day.
Wyatt Short, the fifth pitcher used by the Smokies, was tagged with the loss after allowing two runs on two hits in one-plus innings. Chattanooga scored the winning run with only one out.
It was an absolutely perfect day to be at the old ballpark as the temperature was mild, humidity was low and the sunshine felt really good on a somewhat cool Memorial Day weekend.
Top prospect Nick Lodolo started for Chattanooga and was pulled after throwing five pitches in the fifth inning for an undisclosed injury. He was trailing at that point after allowing two runs and three hits while striking out six.
The Smokies extended their lead to 4-1 with two more runs in the fifth while the Lookouts countered with one run in the bottom of that same inning.
The difference was 5-2 when the Lookouts scored another single run in the eighth, setting the stage for DeLeon’s dramatic homer in the ninth.
While DeLeon had four of Chattanooga’s 10 hits, Yoel Yanqui had three.
Byrd Grayson, Tyler Payne and Christopher Morel all had two hits as the Smokies finished the day with eight.
Darius Hill singled to lead off the game and went to second when Miguel Amaya got hit by a pitch. Both scored when Payne doubled into the left field corner.
Hill reached on a fielder’s choice in the fifth before Amaya walked to put two on. Payne hit into a fielder’s choice to plate Hill while Morel’s single drove in Amaya.
Amaya scored Tennessee’s fifth run on a wild pitch in the seventh before Morel’s second single drove in Byrd for a 6-5 lead in the 10th.
Both teams had scored a run in extra innings, but Moreta slammed the door in the 11th as he struck out Bryan Serra and Myers before Hill flied to center to end the inning.
Alejo Lopez walked in Chattanooga’s half of the first and scored on a single by Yanqui.
Then in the fifth, Brian Rey’s single drove in Jose Barrero, who had walked with one out before stealing second.
Yanqui led off the Chattanooga eighth with a double and went to third on a grounder to first by Mariel Bautista. He then scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Wilson Garcia.
Morel’s single gave Tennessee a 6-5 lead in the 10th before Lorenzo Cedrola’s single tied it, setting the stage for DeLeon’s heroics in the 11th.
The Lookouts are now on the road for a six-game series in Huntsville with the Rocket City Trash Pandas while the next home game for Chattanooga is set for Tuesday June 8 against Pensacola.
Chattanooga improves to 15-9 with Sunday’s win while the Smokies are now 9-14 after dropping four of the six games to the Lookouts.
TENNESSEE 200 020 100 10 – 6 8 0
CHATTANOOGA 100 010 012 11 – 7 11 2
Uelman, Hudson (6), Effress (7), Ueckert (9), Short (10) and Castillo; Lodolo, Lillie (5), Keys (7), Demurias (9), Moreta (10) and Schuyler, Robinson (9).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)