The Chattanooga Lookouts came home on a high note last Tuesday after winning five of six games on the road at Birmingham.
That badly-needed momentum didn’t last long as the Montgomery Biscuits came to town this week and did the same thing, winning five of six and the last three in a row following Sunday’s 9-6 victory at AT&T Field.
The Lookouts collected 11 hits and they scored 11 runs, which should be enough to produce a win under normal circumstances, but a lack of pitching was again the culprit as the Lookouts dropped to 13-26 in the second half and 47-61 overall.
Allan Cerda slugged his eighth home run of season – a two-run shot in the second – to give Chattanooga an early 2-0 lead, but the Biscuits came right back and scored twice in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to take a lead they would not relinquish.
Greg Jones evened the score with his seventh home run in the third – a two-run shot to center – before Blake Hunt gave the Biscuits the lead at 4-2 with a two-run homer in the fourth.
Michael Siani hit a long ball down the line in right to lead off the third inning and was plenty long enough for home run distance, but was ruled a foul ball by first base umpire Steven Hodgins.
Chattanooga manager Jose Moreno came out to argue, thinking it was a fair ball, and was later ejected. Nate Irving, coaching first base at the time, was also ejected after expressing his displeasure with the call.
A double by Kyle Manzardo and a sacrifice fly by Evan Edwards added two runs for Montomery in the fifth while a sacrifice fly by Osleivis Basabe in the sixth extended lead to 7-3.
The Lookouts had their best inning offensively in the seventh when they scored three runs to get within 7-6.
Leonardo Rivas slugged a two-run homer to start while a sacrifice fly by T.J. Hopkins accounted for the third.
The Lookouts had the bases loaded with nobody out following Rivas’ homer, but were unable to get any clutch hits. Nick Quintana struck out to end the threat.
Montgomery then closed out the scoring with two more runs in the eighth.
Trevor Brigden picked up the win with 1.1 innings of hitless relief of starter Evan McKendry while southpaw Andrew Abbott was the loser after allowing four runs on five hits in 3.2 innings.
Abbott started the season in a positive manner with three straight wins, but has lost six of his last eight decisions and is now 5-6.
Brett Wisely had three hits to lead Montomery, which finished the game with 15.
Jones, Basabe, Manzardo, Misner and Hunt all had two hits.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand had three hits for the Lookouts while Quintana finished with two.
The Lookouts have Monday off as normal before starting a six-game series at Huntsville on Tuesday against the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
MONTGOMERY 002 221 020 – 9 15 1
CHATTANOOGA 020 100 300 – 6 11 2
McKendry, Brigden (5), Witt (7), Sterner (7), Reed (9) and Hunt; Abbott, Byrne (4), Curlis (5), Keys (8), Nutof (8) and Free.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)