M-Braves drop nail-biter to Chattanooga

PEARL, MS -- On the final day of June, the Mississippi Braves (3-5, 37-41) dropped a hard-fought decision to the Chattanooga Lookouts (7-1, 49-29) in front of an Independence Weekend crowd of 3,671 at Trustmark Park. A late-inning rally fell just short, as the M-Braves left the tying runs on base in the ninth to lose by a score of 5-3.
Mike Soroka took the mound for Mississippi and performed well despite not having his best stuff. Soroka was touched for all five runs in the game but only two were earned as the M-Braves committed two costly errors in the middle innings. The 2017 Southern League All-Star gave up 10 hits, including a home run, in six-plus innings of work.

For the first time all series, Mississippi found itself with a lead when Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a towering home run over the bullpen in left. But the offense sputtered after that, as Chattanooga starter Dereck Rodríguez, son of Hall of Famer "Pudge" Rodriguez, was dominant through the first six innings.
Soroka worked three scoreless innings to start, but in the fourth Chattanooga again found success with the long-ball. Jonathan Rodriguez hit his ninth homer, and third of the series, over the left-field wall to make it 2-1 in favor of the visitors.
In the fifth, an error by second baseman Andrew Daniel allowed a run to score, and two more came in on an error in the seventh. That was all Soroka would get through as he gave way to Danny Reynolds with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh. Reynolds got a double-play and a strikeout to limit the damage to 5-1.
Reynolds, AJ Minter, and Bradley Roney each threw a scoreless inning to keep the game close.
In the home-half of the seventh, Mississippi got two runs back as Jonathan Morales delivered a two-out double followed by a two-run single by Connor Lien. That was all the offense the M-Braves could muster, leaving runners on first and third in the ninth.
Game four is scheduled for 6:00 PM Saturday at Trustmark Park.
Chattanooga: 5-11-0
Mississippi: 3-8-2
WP: Rodriguez, 2-0
LP: Soroka, 9-4
SV: Clemens, 1
Attn: 3,671
Time: 2:45