The Chattanooga Lookouts rallied to tie in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Tennessee Smokies at AT&T Field, but they couldn’t come up with another timely hit in the ninth or thereafter in a 4-2 loss in 13 innings.
In the opener for the five-game series, the Lookouts (62-50) spent much of the evening playing catch-up, with Max Kepler’s double to left in the sixth inning scoring Levi Michael to tie the game at 1-1.
Jacob Rogers homered to right in the seventh to put the Smokies (62-52) up 2-1, but Kepler singled to center in the eighth and scored on an Adam Walker sacrifice to center to tie the game again.
In the ninth, the Lookouts were unable to capitalize with the bases loaded with two outs. They left a runner stranded at third in the 10th and another runner on base in the 12th, but Tennessee pitchers recorded 1-2-3 innings in the 11th and 13th.
Tennessee scored a pair of runs on Billy McKinney’s bases-loaded single to left field in the 13th.