Barons Drop Home Opener to Chattanooga

The Birmingham Barons drop their sixth game in a row as the Chattanooga Lookouts go on and take down the Barons 6-2 at Regions Field on Tuesday night. The Barons trailed most of the night and couldn't get much going on offense. It is the second game in a row that Barons pitching has given up six runs.

Tyler Callihan walked and stole second in the top of the fourth inning. Jack Rogers singled to right field with one out, moving Callihan to third base. The next batter, Nicholas Northcut, homered to left field, giving the Lookouts a 3-0 lead.

Jacob Burke had an infield single in the bottom of the fifth inning and stole second. The next batter, Duke Ellis, lines a single to center, scoring Burke. On the play, the Lookouts outfielder miss plays the ball, and Ellis moves to third base on the play. The next batter, Jason Matthews, hits a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Ellis on the play. The Barons cut the Chattanooga lead to 3-2 in the game.

Austin Hendrick singled to right field at the top of the seventh and stole second base. Allan Cerda singled to center, scoring Hendrick, and the Lookouts led 4-2.

In the top of the eighth inning, with two outs and Northcut walks, Hendrick singled to right field, and Justice Thompson got an RBI single, scoring Northcut. With the run, the Lookouts take a 5-2 lead. Eric Yang's RBI single scored Hendrick, and Chattanooga went up 6-2.

Starting pitcher Jairo Iriarte (1-2, 2.70) gets the loss as he goes 6.2 innings, giving up six hits, four earned runs, one walk, and a season-high 11 strikeouts. Gil Luna gave up two runs on four hits and two walks in one inning. Relief pitcher Eric Adler struck out all four batters he faced. The Barons recorded a total of 16 strikeouts in the loss.