Lookouts rally to Southern League Finals

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Having gone from worst to first in the regular season, the Chattanooga Lookouts now get a chance to cap their turnaround year with a Southern League championship.

Chris O'Brien and O'Koyea Dickson both homered and Daniel Coulombe pitched out of two jams for the save as the Double-A Lookouts edged the visiting Huntsville Stars, 7-6, to take North Division honors in the decisive fifth game Monday night at AT&T Field.

"It's a great feeling," O'Brien said. "To go from being considered one of the worst teams in organized baseball to turning it around like me did. It's almost hard to believe."

The Lookouts, though, somehow always did. Now they get to play South Division winner Jacksonville in the best-of-5 Championship Series starting Wednesday.

"We felt like it was possible the whole time," manager Razor Shines said. "Obviously, when you are 28 games under .500 and you're scuffling, it's hard to be positive. But I knew we'd get better."

Chattanooga was last in the first half with a 26-44 and was 14-25 in the second half heading into August before things clicked. The Lookouts compiled an 11-game winning streak and edged out Tennessee for the North's second-half title with a 35-33 record by taking four of five games in a closing series at home.

"It's a great time for the team, especially with all we've gone through," Dickson said. "But we always believed."

Things got tight in the late innings, though, as Coulombe had to come in to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning and then strike out pinch-hitter Shawn Zarraga with the tying run on third to end the game.

"It's awesome to do this after the way the team started the year," said the left-hander, who saved all three victories against the Stars after not joining the Lookouts until July. "It's a lot of fun when you're winning."

Coulombe allowed a run on two hits while striking out four over 2 2/3 innings.

The run came on a wild pitch, but the Texas Tech product threw a 2-for-2 fastball that Zarraga took to end the game and series.

"I don't know what he was looking for," he said. "It was right down the middle and he's a good hitter. I guess I just froze him a little bit."

The Championship Series will begin with two games in Chattanooga, then move to Jacksonville for the weekend. Chattanooga's only Southern League title came in 1988. The Lookouts have been runners-up three times, the last in 1996.

The Suns, who eliminated Mobile in four games, are in the Championship Series for the first time since 2010, when they won their second of two straight titles.

Jacksonville ended the regular season as the hottest team in the Southern League, after finishing up with a 10-game winning streak to edge Mississippi for the second-half title in the South. The Suns had an 8-7 edge over the Lookouts in the regular season.

Chattanooga starter Nick Struck allowed just three hits over four innings, but gifted Huntsville with an early lead. Instead of eating Yadiel Rivera's infield hit with two outs and two on in the second, the right-hander made an ill-advised flip to an uncovered third base and the Stars scored two unearned runs.

The Lookouts got one run back in the bottom of the inning when O'Brien took left-hander Brent Suter deep over the center-field fence for his second homer of the postseason, then Chattanooga went ahead by knocking out the Huntsville starter with two runs in the fourth.

O'Brien, the son of long-time former Major League catcher Charlie O'Brien, had an RBI single to tie it. He was thrown out at the plate on a hit by Dickson, but Angel Sanchez put the Lookouts ahead with a two-out pinch single off reliever Eric Marzec.

Then Dickson hit a mammoth homer to left field with two on against Kevin Shackleford to cap a four-run fifth inning. Top Dodgers prospect Corey Seager drove in the first run of the inning with a single.

"I was just looking for a good pitch and fortunately it went over the fence," said Dickson, who also singled. "[I'm] very thankful, man. Very grateful. I had my dad in town. I had my girlfriend here. It's a great time for the team."

Mike Thomas, who picked up the win, set down the Stars on one hit over two scoreless innings, but then the Chattanooga bullpen struggled in the seventh.

Jose Dominguez loaded the bases on singles by Erik Komatsu and Rivera sandwiched around a walk to Josh Prince without recording an out, and then Ralston Cash walked pinch-hitter Josh Fellhauer to force in a run before giving up a two-run single to Orlando Arcia. But Coulombe came in to strike out Nick Ramirez and get Hector Gimenez to fly out.

After Coulombe retired Huntsville in order in the eighth, Rivera collected his third hit to lead off the ninth and Nick Shaw doubled with one out. But Coulombe stuck out Arcia and then, after the wild pitch, got Zarraga looking.

"That's my longest outing of the year, maybe my career," said Coulombe, who threw 41 pitches.

It was the 30th and potentially last season in the Southern League for Huntsville, which has three championships. The team is scheduled to move to Biloxi, Mississippi next year, but construction of a new ballpark there has been delayed.