AT&T Field is the home stadium of the Chattanooga Lookouts.Wednesday night at AT&T Field marked the 46th game of the season for the Biloxi Shuckers, and it was their 46th contest away from home.
The Shuckers are the newest member of the Southern League, having relocated after competing last season as the Huntsville Stars. Groundbreaking for Biloxi's future home, MGM Park, took place in January 2014, but the facility has not been completed, forcing its tenants to log mile after mile on bus trips.
"It hasn't been terrible," said Shuckers center fielder Kyle Wren, the son of former Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren. "We're in Double-A, so we get to stay in decent hotels, and the stadiums are nicer. The biggest thing is that our team has just taken this head on, and we've got a really positive outlook on it.
"I think our team has handled it really well, which has made it easier."
Biloxi's road resiliency continued with an 8-6 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts that was decided on Tyrone Taylor's 10th-inning double that scored Wren and Nathan Orf. The Lookouts grabbed a 6-1 lead after four innings, getting a Stuart Turner home run over the center-field wall in the fourth, followed by Byron Buxton's inside-the-park homer to center.
Chattanooga dropped to 28-17, while Biloxi improved to 28-18 after the first of five meetings between the league's two division leaders.
The Shuckers received disappointing news before Wednesday's game, when Biloxi mayor Andrew Gilich announced that the target date of the park's opening on June 6 would not be met. The team went into this season knowing its first 55 games would be on the road, but Biloxi's home opener now won't be until the second half of the 140-game league season.
"It's been challenging, and getting today's news is a little hard to deal with, but it's not going to affect us out here," Biloxi right fielder Michael Reed said. "We're going to play our hardest whether we've got the home-field advantage or not. We don't have to pay for rent and we get meal money, so there are perks, but obviously we would like to have a home and have our trucks."
Said Wren: "That was the date we had been waiting on since spring training, but we're going to keep doing the same things we've been doing in the first 45 games."
Gilich said it would cost an extra $380,000 to open MGM Park on June 6 and that he did not want to burden the taxpayers, particularly with no guarantees it would be ready. The target date is now any date before Aug. 4.
Chattanooga players respect what their Shuckers counterparts have accomplished so far but would not want to trade places.
"That would be a bummer," Lookouts right fielder Travis Harrison said. "I'm sure they're learning to deal with it, but personally I love coming home and playing in front of home crowds. For them not to get to experience that is pretty tough."
ESPN has featured Biloxi's journey on some SportsCenter segments, and the team has been featured in ESPN The Magazine as well.
"That part has been pretty cool," Reed said. "We've enjoyed that."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.