Biscuits Fall 7-6 to Lookouts in Hard Fought Game

Another night, another tough loss for the Biscuits (59-48) against the Chattanooga Lookouts (70-37). Montgomery had their chances, and a three-run lead entering the sixth inning, but it was not to be in an eighth-straight defeat at the hands of their North Division rivals, this time by a score of 7-6.

Benton Moss got the start for the Butter and Blue and issued a season-high four walks in a no-decision, but held the Lookouts to two runs (one earned) on five hits through the first five innings. After a TJ White solo homer in the top of the second put Chattanooga up, 1-0, the Biscuits would respond with a pair of RBI-singles from Justin Williams and Nick Ciuffo, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, to make it a 2-1 game.

A Levi Michael RBI-single in the fourth would tie things up before Justin O’Conner snapped out of a 1-for-26 slump with a three-run blast 390 feet over the left-center field wall to put the Biscuits back ahead, 5-2.

Montgomery had a chance to put the game away when they loaded the bases against Chattanooga starter Kohl Stewart (5-5) with nobody out in the fifth. But Dalton Kelly got caught looking at strike three, and Williams bounced into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play to keep it a three-run lead.

That would change in the sixth, when Greg Harris (3-8) entered the game for Moss and allowed a leadoff single to Carlos Paulino. After Alex Perez popped out to the shortstop Jake Cronenworth, Harris would walk Levi Michael and then Nick Gordon, which lead to the ejections of Biscuits manager Brady Williams, pitching coach R.C. Lichtenstein, and starting catcher Justin O’Conner-all of whom were tossed for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire and crew chief, Travis Godec.

LaMonte Wade then stepped up with the bases loaded and did what the Biscuits couldn’t in the previous inning by swatting a bases-clearing triple to tie the game at five. Jonathan Rodriguez then hit a floater of a single in the subsequent at-bat to score Wade from third to give the Lookouts the lead for good at 6-5.

Paulino would add an RBI-single in the top of the ninth to make it 7-5, but the Biscuits showed plenty of fight in the bottom of the same inning when Andrew Velazquez tripled off Nick Anderson and Cronenworth knocked him in with a single to make it 7-6. Cronenworth is now on an 11-game hitting streak to begin his Double-A career.

Riley Unroe then bunted Cronenworth to second, and a spectacular diving stop and 6-3 put-out by Gordon sent him to third, but robbed Joe McCarthy of a game-tying single. With Cronenworth 90 feet away from tying the game, Cade Gotta then popped out in foul ground to the third baseman White to end the game.

The Biscuits have now 12 of their last 13 games against the Lookouts, but still lead the Wild Card by three games over the Jackson Generals. Montgomery will try to bounce back on Tuesday when Logan Darnell (3-1) clashes with Dereck Rodriguez (4-2) at 7:05 PM.