Smokies shut out Lookouts twice

Hits were hard to come by Tuesday night for the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Runs were out of the question.

The Tennessee Smokies blanked Chattanooga 2-0 and 1-0 in a pair of seven-inning Southern League games before an announced crowd of 3,280 at AT&T Field. Starting pitcher Zach Hedges went the distance in Tennessee’s opening win, and James Pugliese, David Berg and Daury Torrez combined on the second-game shutout.

Chattanooga’s starter in the second game, Nik Turley, pitched all seven innings and allowed just two hits in defeat. Turley struck out 14 of the 23 Smokies he faced.

Tennessee improved to 11-8 with the two wins, while the Lookouts dropped to 9-10.

Hedges allowed just one hit while striking out three. Nick Gordon had Chattanooga’s lone hit with a single to center field to open the bottom of the first inning, and the only other Lookouts to reach base were Travis Harrison on a two-out walk in the fourth and Tanner English on a sixth-inning fielding error.

Lookouts starting pitcher Fernando Romero nearly pitched seven scoreless innings as well, recording the first two outs in the seventh before Jason Vosler reached on a fielding error by shortstop Engelb Vielma. Ian Rice then singled to right and Romero was replaced by John Curtiss, who walked Jeffrey Baez to load the bases and allowed an Andrew Ely single to right that scored Vosler and Rice.

The Smokies struck early in the second game, when Charcer Burks drew a leadoff walk, stole second, advanced to third on a Baez sacrifice and scored on a David Bote groundout. Chattanooga loaded the bases with two out in the sixth inning, but Torrez struck out Dan Rohlfing.

Chattanooga and Tennessee will finish their five-game set today at 11:15.