smokies drop wild one to baybears, 16-7

In a wild and very unorthodox contest at Smokies Park, the Tennessee Smokies lost to the Mobile BayBears by a score of 16-7 Wednesday afternoon. 

A season high crowd of 6,289 fans, mostly fourth graders from Knox County schools, witnessed the Smokies give up 15 runs in the first three innings, and then tack on seven runs of their own in the sixth inning.     

The BayBears struck early and often off Smokies starter Justin Berg (1-1), who struggled in his second start at Smokies Park. 

Emilio Bonifacio led off the game with a walk, and advanced to second on a Phil Avlas single.  Carlos Gonzalez doubled to bring in Bonafacio, and Avlas came home on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-0 Mobile.  A double by Chris Rahl scored Cesar Nicolas to push the lead to 3-0.

The floodgates opened on the Smokies in the second inning, as the BayBears tacked on eight additional runs, in which Berg was pulled in favor of reliever Tim Layden.  He fared no better against the Mobile batters, and the score was 11-0 after two innings.  Mobile plated another four runs in the third inning to push the lead to 15-0 in favor of visitors. 

After plating an additional run in the fifth, the score was 16-0.

The Smokies finally got on the board in a big way in the sixth inning.  Infielder Gary Cates was brought in as a relief pitcher in the top of the sixth in a surprise move, and retired the side in order.

Cates then led off the inning with a solo home run over the left field wall to get the rally started.  Jake Fox then added a three-run home run three batters later to cut the lead to 16-4.  The Smokies scored three more runs, including a two-run double by Joe Simokaitis and were suddenly down 16-7. 

They would get no closer however, as both teams were held scoreless for the remainder of the game.  Fox finished 2-5 with 3 RBI on the day, with Simokaitis 2-4 with an RBI.  Cates pitched three scoreless innings in relief, facing the minimum amount of batters and striking out two.  

Osbeck Castillo (1-0) got the win for Mobile, who took the series three games to two after being shut out twice in a row to start the series. The Smokies will welcome the Carolina Mudcats to Smokies Park for a five game set that was set to begin tonight (Thursday) beginning at 7:15. Tennessee plans to send right-handed pitcher Kevin Hart (2-1, 3.71) to the mound to face right-hander Jesus Delgado (2-1).