Chattanooga Lookouts beat rain, Huntsville Stars

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

It's not that it hasn't rained this month in Chattanooga.

The rain just seems to be staying away from AT&T Field when the Chattanooga Lookouts are playing and, in Sunday's case, winning.

Chris O'Brien's one-out double to right field in the ninth inning scored O'Koyea Dickson and Daniel Mayora to propel the Lookouts to a 5-4 victory on an afternoon in which rain was in the area but didn't threaten the crowd of 1,597. It rained hard Saturday night in and around Chattanooga, but it was lighter at AT&T, allowing the Huntsville Stars to capture a 5-4 triumph.

"We have not lost an opening this year because of rain," Lookouts general manager Rich Mozingo said Sunday. "We've had to continue games the next day, but we have not lost an opening. We've been very fortunate so far.

"It's raining less, but we've been fortunate with the timing, too."

The Lookouts (10-14) entered the ninth inning Sunday trailing 4-2 but went to work quickly with singles by Bobby Coyle and Dickson before they were advanced on an Angel Sanchez sacrifice. Mayora singled to left to score Coyle and pull the Lookouts within 4-3.

Huntsville had taken a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Josh Prince, Nick Shaw and Hainley Statia. The series is squared at two games apiece heading into tonight's 7:15 finale.

Chattanooga is one of three Southern League teams yet to lose a home date due to rain. The Lookouts had lost four by this point last year, when a soggy July devastated any hopes of a strong year at the gates.

With better weather this season, the Lookouts entered Sunday averaging 3,673 fans a game after averaging 3,398 a year ag0. Chattanooga amassed 220,854 fans last season after compiling 243,051 in 2012.

"We're still ahead of where we were in 2012, and 2012 was one of the greatest seasons we've had here in a long time," Mozingo said. "Getting to 250,000 this season is probably a stretch. It's all just so dependent on the weather."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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