Jacksonville's Austin Barnes high fives coach Rich Arena on his way around third during his game at AT&T Stadium in Chattanooga on Thursday, September 11, 2014.The Chattanooga Lookouts' strong run to a spot in the Southern League championship series is a case of a baseball team peaking at the right time. Title opponent Jacksonville, however, has reached a different peak.
The Suns extended their best-of-five series lead to 2-0 with a 12-3 win in the Lookouts' season finale at AT&T Field, pounding out 16 hits and rallying from a 2-0 early deficit. Jacksonville, 82-59 for the season, has won 10 of its last 11 games and improved to 54-9 in games in which it scored five runs or more.
The series continues tonight (7:05) in Jacksonville with Jeremy Kerht pitching for the Lookouts against Justin Nicolino.
The Lookouts took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when starting pitcher Steve Smith drove in Corey Seager and Noel Cuevas with his first hit of the season. That lead stood until the fourth when opposing pitcher Jon Link's groundout scored Terrence Dayleg and Austin Nola followed with an RBI single to tie the game.
The Suns took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on Brady Shoemaker's one-out RBI double, but it was the sixth where the game got away. Jacksonville sent 10 batters to the plate, knocking out Smith (5 2/3 innings, four earned runs) and getting to a Lookouts bullpen that looked so good in game one with seven scoreless innings.
The inning started innocently with two quick outs, but Smith hit Nola and Suns catcher Austin Barnes followed with a loud two-run homer high off the scoreboard. Smith was lifted after walking J.T Realmuto, but reliever Jarrett Martin was greeted by Viosergy Rosa's home run to right field, suddenly extending the lead to 7-2.
The nightmare inning wasn't finished as a walk (one of nine for Chattanooga pitchers) and two singles made it 8-2, sending a good bit of what was already a sparse crowd, officially announced as 1,186, to the gates.
Barnes and Rosa had three hits each, four of them for extra bases, and Shoemaker added a ninth-inning two-run homer to his double to lead a top five of the Jacksonville lineup that amassed 10 hits, walked five times and scored eight runs. By contrast, the Lookouts had four hits from their top five -- two from Scott Schebler -- and struck out 12 times for a two-game total of 27.
Chattanooga catcher Chris O'Brien had two hits, including a ninth-inning solo homer.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.