smokies take series from suns

In a wild contest with a little bit of everything, Josh Kroeger hit his fourth home run in the series, and Jemel Spearman drove in the go-ahead run as the Tennessee Smokies beat the Jacksonville Suns 9-5 Saturday in front of 3,882 excited fans. 

The Smokies provided some timely hitting and great defensive plays to win their second straight home series, and stay in first place in the North Division.

The Smokies got things started off starter Zack Hammes in the bottom of the 2^nd inning.  Second baseman Gary Cates doubled home catcher Casey McGehee, who earlier walked, to give Tennessee an early 1-0 lead.

The real damage was done in the 3^rd inning as the Smokies offense continued their hot hitting.  Gallagher reached on an error to lead off the inning, then moved to 2^nd on a single by center fielder Sam Fuld.  Jorge Cortes then walked to load the bases.  Jake Fox hit into a fielder’s choice to score Gallagher, and then beat out the throw at first.  Josh Kroeger then grounded into another fielder’s choice to score Fuld, and the Smokies led 3-0. Gallagher later singled in the 4^th inning to help out his cause, and later scored to stake the Smokies to a 4-0 lead.

Jacksonville fought back to take the lead in the 6^th inning with four runs scored.  The Suns took the lead with a mammoth home run off the bat of John Lindsey which went out of the stadium to make the score 5-4 Suns.

The Suns held the lead until the bottom of the 7^th inning, when Kroeger hit a towering home run to tie the game, his fourth home run in this series.  Later in the inning, Joe Simokaitis reached on a fielder’s choice, pinch hitter Issmael Salas walked, with both runners advancing the runners to 2^nd & 3^rd.  That brought Spearman to the plate, who hit an RBI single to right field to give the Smokies back the lead, 6-5.