Lookouts edge BayBears 6-5 in 16 innings

Chattanooga Lookouts logo, blue background
Chattanooga Lookouts logo, blue background

The Chattanooga Lookouts got tired of fooling around as the clock passed 12:30 this morning.

Heiker Meneses, Jorge Polanco and Niko Goodrum opened the bottom of the 16th inning with singles, Meneses crossing the plate to give Chattanooga a 6-5 Southern League victory over the visiting Mobile BayBears at AT&T Field.

Mobile (59-53 overall) had 18 hits in the game to 14 for the Lookouts (61-49), who took a 4-3 lead with a three-run seventh inning featuring singles by reigning Southern League player of the week Kennys Vargas, D.J. Hicks, Adam Brett Walker II and Stuart Turner.

Mobile tied the score on a throwing error in the eighth and took a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th, only to have the home team tie at 5 when Vargas opened the bottom half with a walk and pinch runner Shannon Wilkerson advanced on singles by Hicks and Walker. The Lookouts had the bases loaded with one out after a Travis Harrison single but failed to get the winning run home then.

Five innings later, though, they did, giving Alex Wimmers (7-3) the pitching win as a reward for allowing one hit in two innings following a scoreless three innings by Alex Muren.

Hicks was 3-for-7 and Vargas, Jorge Polanco, Walker and Meneses had two hits apiece for Chattanooga - Vargas in four at-bats. For Mobile, first baseman Rudy Flores was 5-for-8, Garrett Webber went 3-for-7 with two runs and Mark Thomas doubled twice, and each of those three and Gabriel Guerrero had an RBI.

The teams end the series with a 7:15 game tonight at AT&T.

* Vargas earned his league honor for going 10-for-23 (.435) with a .548 on-base percentage and a 1.083 slugging percentage last week. He hit three home runs, two triples and a double and drove in 10 runs.

* Early-season Lookouts star Byron Buxton is staying at Class AAA Rochester after his rehabilitation stint from a sprained left thumb, the Twins announced Monday. He batted .189 in 11 games in his first trip to the big leagues and was 5-for-12 for Rochester while rehabbing.

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