The Chattanooga Lookouts built a lead in the early innings for the second straight game, but much like Tuesday’s series opener with the Montgomery Biscuits, they couldn’t hold it.
The home team fell by a 9-4 score on Tuesday. Wednesday’s game at AT&T Field was a bit closer as the final score was 8-7, but a loss is still a loss and the Lookouts fall to 11-12 while the Biscuits improve to 11-11.
It was a homecoming game for former Soddy Daisy and Lee University standout Logan Workman, who got the start for Montgomery.
Entering the game with a 1-2 record and an earned run average of 1.96, Workman didn’t get the decision as he allowed four runs in 5.1 innings, heading to the dugout with one out in the sixth and the score tied at 4-4.
Southpaw John Doxakis was the winner as he pitched 1.2 innings and allowed no runs on no hits. He was the beneficiary of the winning run in the seventh that scored on a bases-loaded walk in the seventh.
Michael Byrne took his first loss after four wins after allowing two runs on two hits in 1.2 innings. Tanner Murray got the game-winning RBI when Byrne walked him with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run.
Chattanooga starter Sam Benschoter, who has struggled this season and had entered Wednesday’s game with a 3-7 record and ERA of 7.83, pitched much better as he allowed three runs on five hits in five innings that included three walks and four strikeouts.
He left the game after five innings with a 4-3 lead, but didn’t get the win after the Lookouts bullpen allowed five runs in the final four innings.
The Biscuits then added three runs in the eighth for an 8-4 lead that was trimmed to 8-7 when Quincy McAfee stroked a pinch-hit three-run homer to left with two outs in the eighth.
The Lookouts had taken a 2-0 lead in the first inning before adding single runs in the third and fourth for a 4-1 lead.
Jacob Hurtibise, Blake Dunn and Rece Hinds all had singles to lead off the first with Hurtibise scoring on Hinds’ single off the third baseman’s glove. Ivan Johnson’s grounder to third an out later drove in Dunn with the second run.
Alex McGarry had a run-scoring single in the third while Drew Mount drove in the fourth with a single to right, driving in Michael Trautwein, who had doubled off the wall in left center to lead off the inning.
The Lookouts had more than one chance to get back in it, but they stranded 11 runners for the game, including nine in innings four through eight.
Doxakis, Nelson Alvarez and Emmanuel Mejia did a great job keeping the Chattanooga bats in check as the Lookouts only had one hit in the last four innings before McAfee’s three-run blast.
The six-game series will continue on Thursday night and into the weekend. Cole Wilcox, another Chattanooga native who prepped at Heritage in North Georgia, will get the start on Friday.
Both teams finished with 10 hits.
Ronny Simon had three to lead Montgomery, including a two-run homer in the fifth, while Herberto Hernandez had two.
Hurtibise and McGarry both had two hits to lead Chattanooga.
An announced crowd of 2,853 watched the game, but most were long gone when the game ended.
MONTGOMERY 001 021 130 – 8 10 1
CHATTANOOGA 201 100 003 – 7 10 2
Workman, Doxakis (6), Alvarez (8), Mejia (9) and Ostberg; Benschoter, Byrne (6), Timpanelli (7), Branche (8) and Trautwein.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)