Technically, there was no winner or loser in the Carolina-Chattanooga series at AT&T Field.

Try telling that to the Lookouts.

Chattanooga’s 10-1 drubbing Sunday afternoon on paper salvaged a split of the six-game set between the Southern League North Division rivals. Yet for the Lookouts, there was a substantial sense of payback after dropping the first three games by a combined count of 17-2.

“It’s just baseball, and you’ve got to hang with it,” said Lookouts shortstop Eric Eymann after a 3-for-5 day. “We have plenty of talent on this team to make things happen. We started out 0-3, and we’re back now. We can kind of start over, I guess.”

The Lookouts pounded out 14 hits Sunday while holding Carolina scoreless until the ninth. Sam LeCure picked up the win after allowing two hits and no walks in six innings.

Sunday marked the final matchup between the two teams, with Chattanooga winning 10 of 16 meetings.

“Any time you’re facing Carolina with the arms they can run at you, you know you’ve got your hands full from the very beginning,” Lookouts manager Mike Goff said. “You just hope you can get to their starting pitching early and hopefully get to their bullpen, because they’ve got some kind of arms over there and some good players. They’ve got a lot of money invested in that ballclub, and to come back the way we did makes me very proud and pleased.”

Carolina has had as many as seven former first-round picks on its roster this season and still has five — starting pitchers Chris Volstad and Brett Sinkbeil, middle reliever Jacob Marceaux, second baseman Chris Coghlan, and center fielder Cameron Maybin.

The Lookouts tallied four runs off Sinkbeil in the first inning, with Thomas Collaro’s double down the left-field line scoring Tonys Gutierrez to make it 1-0. Danny Dorn followed with a three-run homer over the Budweiser Pavilion in right.

Dorn’s blast sailed down the right-field line and was tailing foul, which caused Dorn to pause, but home-plate umpire Art Thigpen signaled a home run and the bases began to clear.

“I knew I hit it good, but then there was the question of whether it would stay fair,” Dorn said. “It was hooking a little bit, and I just glanced back to make sure it was a home run. It was hooking pretty good, but I think it got out before it hooked past the foul pole.”

Said Goff: “It was fair. It seems like more hook in left field here than in right field for some reason. I don’t know if it’s because there is a shorter porch in right, but most of the time in left, those kind of balls kick foul. They stay straighter in right.”

Carolina manager Matt Raleigh came to the plate to talk to Thigpen, but the meeting was brief.

“He came out, but he knew it was fair,” Goff said. “If it had been foul, he would have gone nuts.”

Chattanooga extended its lead to 5-0 in the second inning when Eymann’s two-out single to right scored Craig Tatum. Eymann tripled to left-center to open the fifth and scored easily on a Sinkbeil wild pitch to make it 6-0.

Cody Strait had an RBI later in the fifth and another in the seventh.

The Lookouts are off today before beginning another six-game series Tuesday in Jacksonville. Travis Wood (1-3, 6.65 ERA) is scheduled to start the opener for Chattanooga, with James McDonald (3-2, 3.52) scheduled to pitch for the Suns.

Comments