Cooper Kinney might want to pinch himself to make sure he is not dreaming.
All the stars seemed to align for the former Baylor School baseball standout from Rhea County in his latest Chattanooga homecoming Tuesday night, when Kinney made his own mark in the inaugural game played at Erlanger Park in front of an overflow crowd of 8,266 fans on the Scenic City’s Southside.
Then again, he did his own part to make sure those perfectly aligned stars shined as brightly as possible.
Kinney, batting cleanup in the lineup for the Montgomery Biscuits, stepped to the plate with the visitors down to their final out and the Chattanooga Lookouts leading 1-0 in a Double-A Southern League matchup. The left-handed hitter then went down low and golfed a full-count offering just a few inches beyond the yellow line over the left-field wall to tie the game in the top of the ninth.
Not quite done with his heroics, Kinney started a 4-6-3 double play in the bottom of the 10th to seal a 2-1 extra-inning victory for Montgomery — and a personal memory almost too good to be true.