The Blue Wahoos have thrived at home this season with a low-scoring attack and late-inning battle of bullpens.
But not right now.
The Chattanooga Lookouts expanded a one-run lead off an eighth-inning miscue, then again turned to their stellar closer Trevor Kuncl to seal a 5-3 win Thursday night at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
It was the Lookouts' (65-54, 27-26 in second half) third win in four games this week – two of these finished by Kuncl, who recorded his 20th save Thursday as one of the top relievers in Minor League Baseball.
Taking on their customary alternate identity on Thursdays as the Pensacola Mullets, the loss dropped the Blue Wahoos into a second-place tie with the Columbus Clingstones and three games back of the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League South Division race. The Biscuits had a 3-1 win against Biloxi to expand their lead.
For Pensacola, this was a game lost despite 10 hits, plus a sizeable number of hard-contact outs that could have changed the outcome.
One of those was the final out in the game.
The Blue Wahoos' most dangerous hitter, Kemp Alderman, faced Kuncl representing the tying run at the plate with Jared Serna on base. Alderman squared up a fastball from Kuncl with two outs and sent it to the base of the right field wall, where Chattanooga’s Austin Hendrick snared it to end the game.
Alderman had blasted a solo homer over the left field wall in the first inning.
The Lookouts took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on Ethan O’Donnell’s solo homer off Blue Wahoos starter Will Schomberg, who made his Double-A debut after joining the team Aug. 19 from High-A level Beloit Sky Carp.
In the game-defining eighth inning, Blue Wahoos first baseman Tony Bullard made an errant throw on a grounder with reliever Josh Ekness running to cover first base. The ball rolled toward the dugout, allowing a run to score and runners going to second and third.
The Lookouts’ top prospect, third baseman Cam Collier, then followed with his third hit, a two-run single to open a 5-1 lead.
Bullard got two of those runs back with his opposite-field homer into the right field berm in the bottom of the eighth. The next two batters, Payton Green and Colby Shade, both singled. But Lookouts reliever Simon Miller struck out Emaarion Boyd to end the inning.
Serna, Bullard and Shade all had multiple hits for the Blue Wahoos. Collier was one of five multi-hit nights for the Lookouts, who collected 12 hits in the game.
The seven-game series, which included a makeup game doubleheader Wednesday, will continue on Friday night with the Blue Wahoos' Orlando Ortiz-Mayr on the mound.