The Chattanooga Lookouts rallied for five runs in the final three innings before their comeback fell short in a 9-7 loss to the Montgomery Biscuits in front of 4,632 Friday night at AT&T Field.
The Lookouts had runners on first and third with two outs in the ninth, but Montgomery's Yoel Espinal completed a shaky inning by inducing a flyout to earn his third save of the season.
Brian Navarreto's RBI single in the second inning and Zander Wiel's RBI triple in the third put Chattanooga up 2-0 before Montgomery tied things up in the fourth, then went ahead with a four-run fifth in which Dalton Kelly had the go-ahead single.
The Biscuits added a run in the sixth and two in the seventh before Chattanooga's comeback began with Brent Rooker and Andy Wilkins drawing back-to-back walks. A one-out double from Jaylin Davis brought Rooker home.
Rooker hit a three-run homer in the eighth, bringing in Jimmy Kerrigan, who had a leadoff double, and Luis Arraez, who walked with one out. In the ninth, Alex Perez drew a one-out walk, Navaretto pushed him to second with a hit and Jordan Gore singled to right with two outs, scoring Perez and putting runners on the corners before Espinal settled down.
Davis and Navarreto each went 3-for-5 and Brent Rooker was 2-for-3 with two walks for the Lookouts, who are 6-16 in the season's second half and 42-49 overall.
The third game of the five-game series is tonight at 7:15.