Hot-hitting Birmingham Barons top Chattanooga Lookouts before huge crowd

Saturday, July 5, 2014

photo Chattanooga Lookouts logo

A near-capacity crowd celebrated the Fourth of July a day early at AT&T Field on Thursday, but it was the Birmingham Barons who provided most of the in-game fireworks.

Birmingham rallied from a two-run first-inning deficit against the Chattanooga Lookouts and scored the game's next seven runs in a 7-2 win, leaving town with a 4-1 series advantage and sending the Lookouts to Jacksonville for a five-game set with a 6-9 mark in the Southern League's second half.

The Barons pounded out 13 hits for the third consecutive game. Dan Black led them with three hits, which included a fifth-inning home run.

The Lookouts, who ended the homestand 4-6, had Birmingham starting pitcher Scott Snodgrass on the ropes in the first inning, getting two runs on three hits, including an RBI single from Daniel Mayora and a run-scoring double from O'Koyea Dickson. Mayora, however, was thrown out at home trying to score, and that ended the inning and let Snodgrass off the hook.

The right-hander settled down and faced the minimum over the next four innings, and the Barons made his good work pay off.

Single Barons runs in the third and fourth innings tied the game, and Trayce Thompson put the visitors up for good with a two-out, two-run homer in the fifth, his 10th of the season. Black followed on the very next pitch from Lookouts starter Raydel Sanchez (1-5) with a shot over the right-field fence for a 5-2 lead.

Chattanooga put a run on the board in the sixth, but it lasted only a few moments. Scott Schebler's hit was originally ruled a home run, but the umpires met and ruled the ball had hit the top of the center-field wall and he was awarded a triple.

Snodgrass (5-6) worked through the seventh inning, allowing seven hits, and Nestor Molina worked the final two frames for Birmingham.

Darnell Sweeney and Noel Cuevas had two hits each for the Lookouts.

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.