Chattanooga Lookouts advance to Southern League finals

photo Chattanooga Lookouts shortstop Corey Seager watches his line drive drill Huntsville Stars' pitcher Brent Suter early in Monday night's game at AT&T Field. Suter needed some time to recover but was able to continue.
photo After advancing to second base after his third-inning single Monday night, Chattanooga's Noel Cuevas just beats the throw back to second at AT&T Field. The Lookouts beat the Huntsville Stars 7-6 and move on to the Southern League championship series against Jacksonville.

At the beginning of August, the Chattanooga Lookouts were in the midst of a disappointing season and seven and a half games out of first place in their division. Now, one month later, they will play for a Southern League title.

In a roller-coaster game Monday night at AT&T Field that seemed to reflect their season, they delivered a thrilling 7-6 victory over the Huntsville Stars that determined the North Division champion.

"We knew it was possible the whole time," Lookouts manager Razor Shines said about his club's improbable turnaround. "It's hard to stay positive when you're 28 games under .500, but I'm telling you, we started this series with the same team that we started the season with, and I knew we were going to get better. I didn't know how much better, but I knew we were going to get better and contend."

Shines' Lookouts, who had been quiet offensively throughout the series, having scored four runs in the previous four games, erupted for seven runs on nine hits.

"When you stay with your philosophy, good things happen," the manager said. "We were hitting under .200 early in the season and finished batting .258. We believe in what we're doing here."

Chattanooga appeared to be headed for a rocky start when pitcher Nick Struck allowed two unearned runs in the second inning on a botched flip to third base. Erik Komatsu lined a single to left field and Josh Prince walked for the Stars before Yadiel Rivera hit a tapper down the third-base line. Struck scooped up the ball and looked to get a forceout at third, but no one was covering the base, and the ball instead trickled into left field to score two.

In the bottom half, however, catcher Chris O'Brien homered off Huntsville pitcher Brent Suter with two out, closing the gap to 2-1.

Struck settled in and did not allow another run, wiggling out of a jam in the fourth with a double play.

The Lookouts then seized the lead. Mayora walked to lead off the inning and scored on an O'Brien single to knot the game at 2. Chattanooga then hit three straight singles -- the last one by pinch-hitter Angel Sanchez producing the go-ahead run.

One inning later, the Lookouts appeared to blow the game open with four runs and a 7-2 lead. Corey Seager hit an RBI single, and two batters later O'Koyea Dickson hammered an Eric Marzec offering over the left-field wall.

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"The whole series, I wasn't sticking with my game plan," Dickson said. "I got a pitch I could handle and it felt good. I got my dad here, and my girlfriend's in town."

The Stars refused to bow out and put together a rally in the seventh, nearly batting around.

Jose Dominguez allowed the first three Huntsville batters to reach before being pulled for Ralston Cash, who walked in a run before recording the inning's first out. He then served up a two-run single to Orlando Arcia, and the lead was down to two at 7-5. Daniel Coulombe was brought on to extinguish the blaze.

Coulombe shut down the Stars in the eighth before making things interesting in the final inning.

Rivera led off with a single and went to third on a double from Nick Shaw. A wild pitch then cut the lead to just one and moved the tying run only 90 feet away. With a 2-2 count and two outs, Coulombe fired a fastball down the middle, freezing pinch-hitter Shawn Zaranga to secure the Lookouts' first playoff series win since 1996.

"Danny was commanding multiple pitches all night, and he froze him," O'Brien said. "This is a great feeling -- to be considered one of the best teams in probably all of organized baseball and turn it around this last month."

"Nothing changed," Shines while addressing the small but lively crowd of 859. "What happens is we've got the best pitching coach in the country and the best hitting coach. Give it up for my coaches."

O'Brien and Dickson paced the offense with two hits and a homer apiece.

The Southern League championship series will be played for two nights at AT&T Field, starting Wednesday, before shifting to Jacksonville for the weekend.

Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.

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