The Chattanooga Lookouts defeated the Montgomery Biscuits 4-1 in a Southern League baseball game Monday in front of a crowd of 2,013 at AT&T Field.
And as important as that was for the first-half-winning Lookouts (51-39 overall), who by winning five of their last six have climbed to 8-14 in the second half, it was a significant game in that it was the first at home since a gunman last Thursday fired upon two local military installations. Five servicemen were killed in the attack and a Chattanooga police officer was wounded before the gunman was killed by police.
The Lookouts got back this morning at 5 a.m. from a series in Biloxi, Miss., where they were 3-1 with Sunday's finale being rained out. It was while they were in Biloxi that the players and coaching staff heard the tragic news from Chattanooga.
"You don't have a lot of time to watch TV on the road," said Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz, who noted that his wife and son were home in Chattanooga when the tragedy happened. "We just tried to educate the guys about what happened and kind of let them know what was going on and what they'd be coming back to."
Before the game a moment of silence was observed in honor of the four Marines and the Navy sailor who died as a result of the shooting. The American flag on the pole behind the wall in left field flew at half-staff.
The Chattanooga players also chose Monday to wear the red caps they wore Independence Day weekend to honor America. They wore black wristbands to honor the fallen servicemen.
"Chad and I were still playing during 9-1-1 (9/11)," Mientkiewicz said of hitting coach Chad Allen. "You never want to see anything like that happen, but especially in your own backyard."
Winning pitcher David Hurlbut (6-4) threw six shutout innings against Montgomery (47-44, 13-10). Mientkiewicz said he could've gone longer, but with Sunday's rainout he had some guys in the bullpen he wanted to get some work.
Stuart Turner, who was 2-for-3, got the offense going with an RBI double into the left-field corner in the fifth. Adam Brett Walker added a two-run homer in the sixth off losing pitcher Jake Faria (2-2), and Niko Goodman greeted reliever Matt Lollis with a 440-foot shot to right in the eighth.
Errors on consecutive plays led to the Biscuits' run in the top of that inning.
"We've gotten better pitching," Mientkiewicz said of the recent string of success, "but we're still making a lot of mistakes. But we've been able to overcome them, so to speak."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.