Barons Win in 10th Inning, Winning Streak Improves to Eight Straight Win

By Jeff Allison

It took an extra inning, but the Birmingham Barons winning streak went to eight games when they defeated the Chattanooga Lookouts 7-5 in 10 at AT&T Field on Friday night. The Barons had a 5-3 lead going into the ninth, but a two-run Lookouts home run forced the extra inning.

In the top of the 10th inning, Tim Elko doubled off the right field wall, scoring Wilfred Veras, and the Barons took a 6-5 lead. Birmingham wasn't finished when Tyler Neslony singled home Elko, and the Barons took the 7-5 lead into the bottom of the 10th inning.

Relief pitcher Gil Luna (1-0) came into the eighth inning to get the Barons out of a jam and went strikeout, ground out to shortstop, and another strikeout to close out the win for the Barons. Luna pitched 1.1 innings, giving up no hits and no runs with two strikeouts.

The Barons (14-5) scored first in the game when Veras singled home Terrell Tatum for the first run, giving the Barons an early 1-0 lead. In the top of the second inning, Tatum doubled to center field and scored Neslony and Jason Matthews. With those two runs, the Barons led 3-0.

Chattanooga (4-14) scored in the bottom of the second inning on a Jack Rogers sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Austin Hendrick. The Lookouts cut the Barons' lead to 3-1. In the top of the fourth inning, a Neslony RBI single scored Bryan Ramos, and the Barons went up 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Jose Torres's RBI single to left field scored Rogers. The Barons still led 4-2 in the game. Jacob Burke singled on a ground ball to right field in the top of the seventh inning, scoring Matthews, and the Barons took a 5-2 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Tyler Callihan homered to right field, reducing the Barons' lead to 5-3. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Johnson hit a two-run home run to tie the game at 5-5. The game went into the 10th inning, where the Barons scored their two runs and came away with the road win.

Starting pitcher Jake Eder pitched 6.0 solid innings, giving up only four hits, two earned runs, and two walks with a season-high eight strikeouts. Josimar Cousin pitched his first game of the season, going three up and three down in the seventh inning. Jordan Mikel pitched 1.2 innings giving up two hits, three earned runs, two walks.