Trash Pandas drop wild one on opening night, 6-3
By Aaron Cheris
MADISON – In a crazy back-and-forth affair that went deep into extra innings, the Rocket City Trash Pandas ultimately suffered a 6-3 loss to the Chattanooga Lookouts in 11 innings in front of an energetic crowd of 5,264 at Toyota Field on Thursday night.
After the Trash Pandas tied the game in both the ninth and tenth innings, Chattanooga plated three runs in the top of the eleventh. In the bottom of the frame, Lookouts reliever Pedro Garcia (S, 1) retired the Trash Pandas in order to finish the win and earn the save.
The game also began well for the visitors, as Chattanooga took advantage of a Rocket City mistake to open the scoring in the first. In his first Double-A at-bat, Cincinnati Reds prospect Noelvi Marte reached on an error by Trash Pandas first baseman Kevin Maitan. Two batters later, Rece Hinds doubled to left to put two on with two outs. Trash Pandas starter Mason Erla then threw a wild pitch, allowing Marte to slide home with the first run of the game. Hinds also tried to score from second but was thrown out by catcher Edgar Quero with the tag applied by Erla.
Chattanooga starter Andrew Abbott began the season in fine form, striking out the first nine Rocket City hitters he faced to fire three perfect innings. The Trash Pandas finally got a baserunner in the fourth with Zach Neto’s leadoff walk.
In the top of the fifth, Erla hit Jacob Hurtubise to begin the frame. He followed by striking out Jose Torres to end his outing. Kenyon Yovan entered and retired the next two hitters to retire the side. Over 4.1 innings, Erla allowed one unearned run on three hits with two walks and a career-high nine strikeouts.
Abbott stymied the Rocket City attack for the rest of his outing, finishing with 4.2 hitless innings with 11 strikeouts.
With one out in the sixth, the Lookouts doubled the lead on Allan Cerda’s solo homer to left against Yovan for a 2-0 advantage.
Against Chattanooga reliever Connor Curlis in the sixth, Orlando Martinez placed a perfect bunt between first and second base for the Trash Pandas’ first hit of the season. Neto followed with a double deep to the gap in right-center, plating Martinez to make it a one-run game.
The pitching battle resumed from there, with Ivan Armstrong and Luke Murphy each throwing a scoreless inning for the Trash Pandas. Jake Wong continued for Chattanooga, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings to hold the one-run lead going to the ninth.
Kolton Ingram worked into a bases-loaded jam in the ninth before getting Torres to fly out to center, stranding the runners.
Facing Chattanooga closer Tommy Eveld, the Trash Pandas fought back. Kyren Paris reached with a one-out single. On his 20th birthday, Quero came through with a clutch double into the right field corner, allowing Paris to come all the way home from first with the tying run. Eveld (W, 1-0) escaped further damage by retiring Jeremiah Jackson and Tucker Flint to send the game to extras.
In the tenth, the teams traded runs on Ivan Johnson’s fielder’s choice in the top half for Chattanooga and David Calabrese’s RBI single for the Trash Pandas in the bottom half. But in the eleventh, the Lookouts took the lead for good with three runs off Rocket City reliever José Soriano (L, 0-1) and would hold the Trash Pandas scoreless to end it.
The six Rocket City pitchers combined to tie a franchise record with 19 strikeouts while the Chattanooga pitching staff combined for 23 strikeouts, the most ever against the Trash Pandas.
At the plate, Quero went 1-for-5 with the game-tying double in his Double-A debut while Martinez was the only Trash Panda to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.
Opening Weekend continues with a Friday night matchup against the Lookouts (1-0) at 6:35 p.m. at Toyota Field. Friday will be the debut of the Trash Pandas’ new Halo Blue uniforms, which honor both the Trash Pandas’ (0-1) parent club, the Los Angeles Angels, and the local aerospace community. Fans can also enjoy Halo Blue draft beer, signature blue cocktails, berry blue lemonade, and blue ice cream. After the game, a thrilling fireworks show will light up the sky above Toyota Field, presented by the Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center.
