The Chattanooga Lookouts’ hurlers had a combined three-hit performance wasted by shoddy fielding in their 4-3 loss to the Mississippi Braves. However, it would be misleading to say Lookouts pitchers were completely faultless.
Sam McWilliams hit Riley Delgado and top prospect Michael Harris II on back to back at-bats. Then Francisco Urbaez mishandled a sacrifice bunt, which allowed one runner to score and all three other baserunners to be safe.
Stevie Branche replaced McWilliams, who had gone five innings, given up two hits, and struck out three with one earned run allowed.
Branche gave up a sac fly to score another, and then intentionally walked Drew Lugbauer to make the double-play a possibility.
Instead, he walked Hendrik Clementina to walk home a run, and then Leo Rivas mishandled a Jacob Pearson shot to allow two more runners to score. Four Braves in total scored in the sixth inning, and only one of those was earned.
Chattanooga scored three runs in the seventh and eighth combined, but could not overcome their blunders in the sixth inning. Winning Mississippi pitcher Darius Vines threw six and a third innings, struck out five, and allowed just two earned runs.
Chattanooga’s Quincy McAfee went 2-4, and Matt Lloyd went 1-4 and drove in a run. Chattanooga is now 6-6 on the season, and will play their next game on Friday at 7:05 p.m.
BOX SCORE:
CHATTANOOGA 000 000 210. - 3/7/2
MISSISSIPPI 000 004 00X. - 4/3/0
WP: VINES
LP: MCWILLIAMS
Chattanooga Lookouts Notes:
Friday’s pitching matchup between Brandon Williamson and Jared Shuster should be a great one. Both prospects rank in the top 10 of their respective organizations, and Williamson cracked the MLB’s top 100 prospect rankings before the season. Shuster is 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA, and Williamson has started slightly slower with a 6.00 ERA to go with his 1-0 record.
TJ Hopkins, who can man all three outfield spots with equal poise, is also a menace on the basepaths. On Wednesday, Hopkins became the first Lookout since Zach Granite in 2016 to swipe three bags in a single game. The Lookouts won that game 4-3 behind five innings of one-run ball by Eduardo Salazar.
Ricky Karcher is now a Lookouts reliever, but his family has some ties to the Braves organization. His father Rick, as a 21 year-old, played A-ball for the Macon Braves. While Rick never made it to the major leagues, a few of his minor league teammates did. David Justice was later named rookie of the year, and Chipper Jones went on to become the face of the team for two decades.
Matt McLain has gone without a hit since hitting for the cycle against Birmingham on April 17. McLain has gone 0-9 and struck out five times against the Braves, and his batting average has dropped to 0.268.
Meanwhile in Dayton, uber-prospect Elly De La Cruz has been tearing it up for the Dragons. The 6-5 infielder probably won’t be in high-A for long if he keeps putting up numbers against that level of competition. Now hitting .333 on the season, it will not surprise anyone if De La Cruz begins to smack balls over the wall. He’s been stuck at one home run for a week.
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