Smokies end losing streak in big way, win 7-3

The Tennessee Smokies solidified their playoff hopes Mondaywith a convincing 7-3 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts at Smokies Park. The Smokies benefited from a strong outing by pitcher Donnie Veal, and home runs by both Tyler Colvin and Kyle Reynolds to snap a six game losing streak in front of 3,099 excited fans. With the win, the Smokies eliminated Chattanooga from the wild card race, but have not sewn up the 2^nd half title as of yet.

Chattanooga jumped on top of the Smokies early on in the game again tonight. A double off the bat of Drew Anderson scored a run for the Lookouts followed by a two-run single by Craig Tatum gave Chattanooga a 3-0 advantage in the top half of the second inning. Tennessee was able to cut into the three run lead in the bottom half of the inning however, thanks in part to Tyler Colvin’s solo home run, his seventh of the season with Tennessee.

Veal (7-10) settled in after a rough second inning to retire the next twelve batters he faced. The Smokies offense also helped out Veal with some timely hitting to take the lead in the bottom half of the fourth. Colvin, who went 3 for 4 on the night, led off the inning with a single off Lookouts starter Sam Lecure (7-5) and then scored on a Kyle Reynolds RBI double. Reynolds advanced to third on a throwing error on the play, and was brought home by an RBI single by catcher Chris Robinson to tie the game at 3-3. The Smokies took the lead thanks to Veal’s bat, who drove in his first run of the season with an RBI single to give the Smokies a 4-3 advantage.

The Smokies never looked back, as Veal continued to mow down Lookout batters through 7 2/3 innings. Tennessee scored two more runs in the fifth on Reynolds’ eighth home run of the season, and added another run in the sixth thanks to a Jorge Cortes RBI double to extend the lead to 7-3 in favor of the Smokies. Matt Avery came on to pitch the final 1 2/3 innings to preserve the win for Tennessee.

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