The Lookouts' Jay Schuyler (19) beats the Smokies' Chris Morel back to the bag to foil a pick-off attempt. Chattanooga lost, 5-2.
photo by Glen Austin
Chattanooga's Olympic catcher stood in the right-handed batter’s box, made great contact with a Luis Lugo pitch, and roped a double into leftfield. Or at least it would have been a double, had Zach Davis not been in the perfect position to snag it out of the air. It was that kind of night for the Lookouts, who blew an early two run lead in a 5-2 loss to the Tennessee Smokies.
After giving up six runs in the first couple of innings of Wednesday’s game, ‘up’ was the only direction the Lookouts could go to kick off Thursday’s matchup.
Starting southpaw Connor Curlis had a strong start to the game, retiring the first three batters on a flyout, a groundout, and a swinging Darius Hill strikeout.
The Lookouts Lorenzo Cedrola has been a hitting machine this season, sporting a .321 batting average and 27 RBIs. He slapped a single through the gap into center, and then got a good break on Wilson Garcia’s grounder into left and ran to third. With runners on the corners, left fielder TJ Hopkins had a chance to get an early run on the board. He delivered with a double that ricocheted off the centerfield wall and drove in both of his teammates and made the score 2-0 at the end of one inning.
New third baseman Reyny Reyes showed off great glove work in the second inning on a solid double play. He calmly scooped up a ball that looked to be well hit, quickly tossed it to second-baseman Quincy McAfee, who fired a rope to first baseman T.J Schuyler to clear the basepaths of Smokies. And while the Lookouts did not score in the bottom of the second, Reyes did record his first hit as a Lookout on a smoked line drive into right field off starter Javier Assad, who ended the game with six hits allowed and four strikeouts in five innings of work.
Curlis’ stuff was less impressive in the third inning, and he allowed Zach Davis to drive in Chase Strumpf on a single to left with no outs, and the Smokies still had two runners on afterward. But two popups to Reyes and a strikeout later, the Lookouts left the top of the third with their lead still intact. After Curlis sat down the Smokies in order, the Lookouts went to the bottom of the fourth still holding on to their 2-1 lead.
That lead did not last in the fifth inning, when Chris Morel launched a three-run bomb over the left field wall and gave the Smokies a 4-2 lead. Brennen Davis put up another run in the sixth when he sent another high-arching fly ball over the left field fence, this time a solo homer to make it 5-2. The second-ranked prospect in the Chicago Cubs’ system has hit three other homers this season, and it’s unlikely any have travelled as far as that one did.
Eddy Demurias plunked Davis the next time he came up to bat, and an unhappy Davis tried to get in scoring position by stealing second. Kolozsvary ripped the ball over to McAfee on the pickoff, and Davis was easily called out to end the top of the eighth inning.
Nelson Maldonado legged out a triple to start the ninth inning, his ball to center field bouncing off the wall and away from a leaping Braxton Lee. Maldonado made a break for home after a wild third-strike got away from Kolozsvary. Howard ran to home plate, and Kolozsvary’s toss back to his pitcher was early enough for Howard to apply the tag. The Lookout bats continued to be silent though. After Lugo went three innings and did not allow a hit, Casey Ueckert closed out the game with a long ninth inning. He walked Jay Schuyler and then beaned Reyes to bring up the tying run to the plate in Chuckie Robinson. He grounded out though and ended the game.
Chattanooga’s second loss in a row puts them at 32-24, still in first place over Birmingham (29-26) in the division, but trailing Pensacola (33-23) and Mississippi (34-22) in the overall standings. Weather permitting, the Lookouts will play another matchup on Friday at 7:15.
GAME SUMMARY:
SMOKIES: 001 031 100 - 5 8 0
LOOKOUTS: 200 000 000 - 2 6 0
Assad, Lugo (6), Ueckert (9) and Payne, Curlis, Pidich (7), Demurias (8), Howard (9) and Kolozsvary
WP: Assad
LP: Curlis
You can contact the author at joseph.a.dycus@gmail.com or on Twitter at @joseph_dycus .