smokies rally to snap losing skid

With their seventh consecutive loss hanging in the balance Monday night at Smokies Park, the Tennessee Smokies fought back and pulled out a hard-fought 8-6 win over visiting West Tenn before a crowd of 1,792, snapping the season-long six-game losing skid.

On a wet and chilly night in Kodak, the Smokies used a total of six pitchers and banged out eleven hits to survived a seesaw battle to finally pull out a victory on the final night of their homestand.

The Smokies (10-15), in last place in the Southern League’s North Division, will begin a five-game series at South Division foe Jacksonville on Wednesday.

Monday’s game went back and forth until things really got intriguing in the eighth inning with the Smokies up 4-3.

The Diamond Jaxx took their first lead of the game by plating two runs off Smokies reliever Chris Shaver. A Mark Kiger RBI single along with a Shawn Garrett RBI single did the damage to give West Tennessee a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the eighth.

As the rain started to come down, the Smokies bats finally came alive in the series.

Kyle Reynolds led off the eighth with his second home run of the year, a laser shot to right center field. Chris Robinson then ripped a single to right field and advanced to second on a fielding error by Prentice Redman. With the score tied and Robinson at third base, newly acquired second baseman matt Matulia delivered a key RBI single to give the Smokies the lead for good. Tennessee added another two runs int eh inning to take a commanding 8-5 advantage into the ninth.