This hasn’t exactly the baseball season the Chattanooga Lookouts were hoping to have as they’ve lost a lot more than they’ve won and they’ve been in last place in the Southern League’s North division for most of the summer.
This week’s opponent t has been the Montgomery Biscuits, who just happen to be leading the Southern division. These two teams had each won two games so far this week, but the Biscuits got the upper hand at AT&T Field Saturday night with a 7-6 victory that took 13 innings.
The Biscuits are now 35-27 overall while the Lookouts are now 17-45 for the season and some 22.5 games out of first place.
Saturday’s game honored members of the old Chattanooga Negro League, which flourished back in the mid 1900s. Chattanooga played as the Choo Choos in this latest game, but the results were still the same.
The Biscuits grabbed the lead with two runs in the third inning and made it 3-0 with another in the fourth before Chattanooga scored its first run in the fourth before taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth.
That score remained until Bob Seymour knotted the score with a solo homer leading off the ninth inning. The Biscuits then scored single runs in the 10th, 12th and 13th innings to win when the local guys couldn’t answer the bell in the 13th.
Mat Nelson’s RBI-single in the fourth put Chattanooga on the board while three runs in the fifth put the good guys ahead.
Justice Thompson led off with a walk before Jose Torres singled and Bubba Thompson reached on a bunt to load the bases with nobody out. Francisco Urbaez drove in the first two runs with a single up the middle before Thompson scored the go-ahead run as he raced home on a wild pitch.
It seemed like Montgomery had runners on base in every inning – they left 13 runners stranded for the game – but Chattanooga pitchers did a great job keeping them off the scoreboard for four straight innings.
Then came the ninth when Seymour picked up his third hit of the game – his sixth homer of the season – to tie the game.
Kenny Piper drove in a run with a single in the 10th while Tanner Murray’s double plated a run in the 12th. Chandler Simpson didn’t get a hit in his final at –bat, but he did hit a fly ball deep enough in center to drive in Jalen Battles with what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Chattanooga was limited to just five hits for the game and none after the fifth inning.
Torres kept Chattanooga alive when the scored on a wild pitch in the 10th while he scored again in the 12th on a sacrifice fly by Urbaez.
But in the 13th after Montgomery had taken the lead for the last time, the Lookouts were retired in order to end the game.
Alfredo Zarraga was the winning pitcher after allowing one run in the final two innings. Brooks Crawford took the loss after allowing one run in his only inning of work.
Seymour and Murray both had three hits to lead Montgomery while Simpson, Piper, Battles and Dominic Keegan all had two each.
Urbaez was the only Chattanooga player with two.
This series will conclude with the final game on Sunday with the first pitch slated to be thrown around 2:15. Chattanooga will then be on the road for a week for a six-game series with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
MONTGOMERY 002 100 001 101 1 – 7 16 1
CHATTANOOGA 000 130 000 101 0 – 6 5 1
Leverett, Reifert (5), Hunley (6), Askew (8), Vernon (10), Zarraga (12) and Keegan; Lowder, Benschoter (3), Holt (7), Timpanelli (9), Roxby (11), Crawford (13) and Nelson.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)