The Chattanooga Lookouts may have been down, but they were never out.
Facing the Biloxi Shuckers, the leading team in the Southern League’s South Division, rallied not once but twice to pull out a 10-9 thriller at AT&T Field Tuesday night in the first game of a six-game series with the Shuckers.
The Lookouts are now 29-25 and in second place behind Birmingham in the North division while Biloxi is now 35-23 and still in first in the North division.
Biloxi got off to a fast start with four runs in the first inning, highlighted by a three-run homer from Xavier Warren. A solo shot by Brock Wilken made it 5-0 in the third before the Lookouts rallied for the first time to knot the score at 5-5 in the bottom of the third.
A single run in the fourth put Chattanooga up 6-5 before a two-spot in the fifth made it 8-5. Biloxi rallied with two runs in the sixth to make things interesting at 8-7 before taking a 9-8 with two runs in the eighth.
The attendance was announced at 2,430, but a bunch of the fair-weather fans had departed when a two-run double from Luis Lara with two outs in the eighth put the visitors up 9-8.
The Lookouts went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, but came back to life to win with two runs in the ninth.
Edwin Arroyo led off the ninth with a single before Sal Stewart walked. A single to right by Hector Rodriguez knotted the score at 9-9, still with nobody out before a walk to Jay Allen loaded the bases again. Second baseman Dominic Pitelli, who didn’t have a hit in this game, ripped a long fly to right to drive in Stewart with the game-winning run as the remaining crowd stood and cheered for all they were worth.
Simon Miller, the fourth Chattanooga pitcher, earned the win with 1.1 innings where he allowed one hit and one walk, but he also had a pair of strikeouts.
Justin Yeager, the fifth hurler used by the Shuckers, took the loss after allowing two hits and two walks in that fateful final inning.
Rodriguez and Allen both had three hits for the Lookouts as they finished with 14 for the game. Stewart, Austin Hendrick and Cade Hunter all had two hits for the winners.
Matthew Wood had three hits for Biloxi as his team finished with 11 hits for the game.
This series will continue with game two on Wednesday with the first pitch set for 7:15.
BILOXI 401 002 020 – 9 11 1
CHATTANOOGA 005 120 002 – 10 14 1
Wichirowski, Peterson (5), Bowman (7), Childers (8), Yeager (9) and Wood; Abel, Franson (6), Sikkema (7), Miller (8) and Hunter.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)