The Chattanooga Lookouts clinched their first Southern League playoff appearance since 2006 on Tuesday afternoon when Jackson was eliminated from the wild-card race.
Chattanooga played the last of a six-game series in Mobile on Tuesday night, winning 14-2, but not before Lookouts manager Carlos Subero gathered his players together to congratulate them. There wasn’t time for a huge celebration with a game at hand, and the Lookouts headed back to Chattanooga immediately afterward.
“I think that any time you make the playoffs, you can’t just overlook it and treat it as nothing happened just because you want to get giddy and win the division first,” Subero said. “Our guys have done a good job in the second half, and whatever comes I think needs to be recognized, because it’s a great accomplishment for our kids. It’s not always an ideal world.”
Chattanooga, which still wants to win the North Division title for the second half, scored 13 runs in the first three innings, beginning with a three-run homer by Hector Gimenez. Scott Van Slyke later had a two-run homer, while Gorman Erickson was 4-for-6 with four RBIs and Brian Cavazos-Galvez had a triple and three RBIs.
The Lookouts are off today before hosting Montgomery in their final series of the regular season.