The Lookouts may have taken a page from the Atlanta Braves playbook with their incredible comeback Saturday night. Trailing the Smokies 7-0, Chattanooga battled back to tie Tennessee, 8-8. The game, however, was suspended at the end of the seventh inning due heavy rain. The game is scheduled to be resumed at 1:15 P.M., tomorrow. The regularly scheduled contest will resume shortly after the conclusion of the resumed game.

Tennessee scored their first two runs of the game in the second inning. Consecutive doubles by Greg Rohan, Michael Burgess, and Nate Samson resulted in Rohan and Burgress crossing home plate.

The Smokies added two more runs to their total in the third. With the bases loaded, Greg Rohan hit a dribbler between the mound and home plate. Lookouts starting pitcher Zach Lee fielded the ball and attempted to make a short toss to catcher Matt Wallach, but an errant toss allowed Justin Bour to score. An aggressive and speedy Jae-Hoon Ha also crossed the plate as the ball trickled to the backstop.

Lee’s struggled continued into the third, as the young righty surrendered a two-run shot to Bour before being replaced by Wes Roemer on the mound. Rohan later hit an RBI double in the inning to extend the Smokies’ lead to 7-0.

Faced with a daunting deficit, the resilient Lookouts quickly got back right into the game with a six-run rally in the fifth frame. After two walks and a bunt, Rafael Ynoa hit a clean single to account for the first run of inning. Nick Buss followed with a two-RBI triple, and Luis Nunez brought home Buss with a subsequent single. The barrage of hits prompted the exit of starting pitcher Dallas Beeler and the entrance of reliever Tony Zych. Kyle Russell cordially greeted Zych by launching a two-run shot over the right-field wall to put the score at 7-6.

The Lookouts tied up the game in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Nunez.

The slugfest continued into the seventh, as Nelson Perez hit a solo shot for the Smokies, while Blake Smith countered with a solo shot of his own for the Lookouts to knot-up the score, 8-8.

The epic match-up encountered a wrinkle to its plot, as a strong rain storm ended play for the evening after the third out was recorded in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Inning by inning  Recap of the game.

Box Score

The Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies will wrap-up their series, tomorrow. Gates will open at 12:00 for the 1:15 P.M. start of the resumed game. Tickets for this game or any other Lookouts home game can be purchased at the Lookouts Box Office at AT&T Field, online at www.lookouts.com, or by calling (423) 267-4849.

Junior Lake is called out in a close play at first base on a great stretch by Travis Denker.
- Photo2 by Tim Evearitt