Lookouts Continue to Burn Biscuits

Chattanooga (69-37) scored six unanswered runs to win their seventh straight game against the Biscuits (59-47), and have now won 11 of their last 12 over the Butter and Blue after securing a 6-3 win on Sunday night at Riverwalk Stadium.

Genesis Cabrera was phenomenal in his sixth Double-A start, twirling five shutout innings, allowing no runs on six hits, with four walks and five strikeouts in the no-decision. Despite surrendering a lead off triple in the first and allowing three-straight singles to load the bases in the third, Cabrera moved through the first three innings without allowing a run, and it would be his offense that gave him the lead in the bottom half of the inning.

After Justin O’Conner drew a walk off Chattanooga starter Stephen Gonsalves in the third, Nick Ciuffo stepped up and knocked in the Biscuits designated hitter with an RBI-double off the ribbon board in left to put Montgomery up 1-0. Riley Unroe struck out swinging in the subsequent at-bat, and that brought Jake Cronenworth to the plate with one out.

Cronenworth saw something great to hit and spanked a ground ball into center field to score Ciuffo and put Montgomery up 2-0. Cronenworth has now extended his hitting streak to 10 games, becoming the seventh Biscuit to reach double figures and through his first 11 games, he’s driven in six runs. Dalton Kelly added an insurance run in the fourth, continuing his otherworldly like performance, with an RBI-single to make it 3-0. Kelly now has an unfathomable 26 RBI in his first 28 games at the Double-A level.

Montgomery couldn’t muster up another run after the fourth and allowed the Lookouts to slowly chip away at their three run cushion. Reliever Todd Van Steensel entered in the sixth and pitched a scoreless frame, before Mike Broadway, who replaced Cabrera in the bottom half of the inning countered with a scoreless frame of his own. Broadway ran into trouble in the seventh, surrendering a single to Alex Perez, then getting Levi Michael to fly out to left, before issuing back-to-back walks to Max Murphy and Jonathan Rodriguez to load the bases.

Reliever Jordan Harrison entered with one out and retired designated hitter Andy Wilkins on strikes, and then plunked TJ White with a pitch to give Chattanooga some life with the score now 3-1. Self-inflicted mistakes continued to hurt Montgomery after Harrison delivered a wild pitch, one that allowed Murphy to score and made it a 3-2 game.

Their woes continued in the 8th inning when Ian Gibaut struck out a batter, issued a walk, punched out another and then gave up yet another walk. With two outs and the bases loaded, Jonathan Rodriguez came up big, tying the game at three with an RBI-single. Van Steensel faced the minimum in the eighth, which meant the Biscuits would have to walk off a win if they were going to get one. Montgomery drew a couple of walks in the ninth, but couldn’t find a way to pull off any late game magic this time around.

Kyle Bird entered in the bottom half of the inning and kept the game tied despite hitting Carlos Paulino with a pitch, he then got Ryan Walker to line out and struck out Harrison looking to end the inning and send it into extras,

In the tenth, Yoel Espinal gave up a hit and a walk, before again losing a battle against Jonathan Rodriguez, who on May ninth hit a game winning grand slam and this time hit a go ahead two-run double to make it 5-3. Rodriguez scored after Walker drew a walk to secure a 6-3 victory.

The Biscuits are now 3.5 games ahead of the Tennessee Smokies in the Wild Card race and will look to extend their lead when Benton Moss (1-3) spars with Kohl Stewart (4-5) on Monday night at 7:05 PM CT.