The Chattanooga Lookouts continue to keep their cool, winning a fourth straight game Monday night at AT&T Field by topping Biloxi 1-0 in 10 innings.
Monday's temperature at David Hurlbut's first pitch was 72 degrees, which actually was warm compared to Saturday night's 66-degree start and Sunday afternoon's 65 degrees. The Lookouts have played five straight games with temperatures in the 60s or 70s since last Wednesday's 86-degree start.
"You always love to play in beautiful weather, and the last few days have been gorgeous," Lookouts catcher Stuart Turner said. "It's been cool with the wind blowing a little bit. To me, sunny and 70 is perfect. I will get a little sweat going, but it's a nice day."
Biloxi and Chattanooga were scoreless through nine innings Monday before a crowd of 1,845, and Turner opened the 10th by singling to center field and advancing to second on a Levi Michael sacrifice. Following a wild pitch that got him to third, Turner scored the game's only run on Daniel Palka's infield single.
Hurlbut went nine innings and allowed just two hits while striking out seven, and Jake Reed worked a 1-2-3 10th as the Lookouts improved to 18-20.
Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said he has noticed the smiling faces of fans the past few days, and he has been putting the milder temperatures to use.
"We're trying to get in as much early work as we can now, because we know that 200-degree weather is coming soon," Mientkiewicz said. "I'm not going to complain about the weather at all, and I don't complain when it's hot, because it could be worse. We could be playing in snow, so we're in good shape here."
Mientkiewicz, who lives in Florida, actually prefers the 90- to 95-degree days, adding "nothing hurts when it's hot, but everything hurts when it's cold." He is not alone in terms of Lookouts who look forward to the scorching days ahead.
"It's easy to play all nine innings and be slap full of energy right now, but I prefer it to be pretty hot because of the mental aspect," outfielder Shannon Wilkerson said. "When it gets hotter, you tend to want to focus more. You can let the game get away from you when it's nice and cool like this because you get so complacent.
"I will say that I've never played in weather this nice this early in the season. I've opened three seasons in Maine."
Aaron Slegers (2-3, 3.27 ERA) is scheduled to start tonight's 7:15 game on the mound for the Lookouts, with Javi Salas (2-1, 4.50) scheduled for the Shuckers.
"These past few days have been ideal," Slegers said. "I remember some mid-August days last year getting hot and sticky, especially for an Arizona kid who wasn't used to the humidity."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.