Philip Stalzer
KNOXVILLE, TN — The Smokies hosted the Lookouts in their final regular season home series of the 2026 season this week. With Knoxville already in the playoffs and Chattanooga already 11 games out of first place coming into the series, neither team had much left to prove. Still, the in-state rivals duked it out one last time in 2026.
Game 1: UTK 12, UTC 3
With the calendar flipped to September 1, there was a new buzz in Knoxville… college football. The Smokies and the lookouts decided to show their support for their respective college football teams by posting a football score in game one.
Kevin Valdez started on the mound for the Smokies and was fantastic. Valdez went five shutout innings, earning the right to pitch into the sixth inning. He was unable to record an out and gave up two runs in the sixth inning, but Knoxville’s own offense had already given him some support in the fourth inning on a three-run bomb by Carter Trice, his 15th homer of the year.
After the Lookouts scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning to make it a 3-2 game in favor of Knoxville, the Smokies responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning to give themselves some cushion, taking a 7-2 lead.
Chattanooga tried to chip away with another run in the top of the eighth inning, but Knoxville again responded in the next half inning, this time with five runs to make it 12-3. Tyler Ras shut it down in the ninth inning with a perfect frame, securing game one for the Smokies, 12-3.
Game 2: Tossing Away a Gem
Brody McCullough was set to start game two for the Smokies. Coming off of a bad start against Pensacola, and a shaky start against Biloxi, McCullough was looking to get back into form before the playoffs.
McCullough did exactly what the doctor ordered, twirling five shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out 10 Lookouts, a new career high for McCullough in strikeouts.
The Smokies gave him an early lead with a run in the first inning after a lead off triple by Kane Kepley and an RBI single for Alex Ramirez, but that was all the support they could muster up.
Set to protect a one-run lead, Frankie Scalzo Jr. was the first out of the bullpen for the Smokies. Scalzo Jr. was effective, allowing just one hit and one walk in his inning of work. Marino Santy came on after Scalzo Jr. and did not have his best stuff.
Santy walked the lead off batter and plunked the second batter, setting up Smokies-killer Austin Hendrick for a three-run home run that gave Chattanooga a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning. Santy was able to get out of the inning after that, but the damage was done.
Tyler Schlaffer pitched the final two innings for Knoxville, allowing two more unearned runs in his two innings of work, but Knoxville’s offense wasn’t able to mount a comeback as they fell in game two, 5-1.
Game 3: Forget It and Move On
Thursday did not turn out to be a good day for Knoxville on the field. The main highlight was Jake Knapp making his second start since returning from injury, and his first at Covenant Health Park.
Knapp was great, tossing five shutout innings himself, making it the third time in the series that Knoxville’s starters had gone five shutout innings. The offense was able to give Knapp some run support too, scoring three times in the bottom of the third inning on five hits to make it 3-0 Knoxville.
Unfortunately, no one out of the bullpen seemed to have their best stuff on Thursday. Jackson Brockett was the first Smokie out of the bullpen. In his first inning of work, Brockett surrendered two runs to cut the Smokies’ lead to one. Then in the seventh inning, the first five Lookouts reached base safely, in part thanks to a defensive error by Karson Simas at shortstop. Brockett surrendered the lead and was pulled from the game with the bases loaded before recording an out.
Vince Reilly came on in relief to try to limit the damage and get out of the jam, but wasn’t on his A-game either. Reilly let up a base-clearing double to the first batter he faced, making it 7-3 Chattanooga. The next batter walked and then Reilly finally recorded the first out of the inning on a flyout to left field.
After the flyout, Reilly called to the dugout and was removed with an apparent injury. He was never placed on the IL, but he remained in the dugout all week.
Yenrri Rojas came on as the third pitcher in the inning for Knoxville, but still struggled to close the door. Rojas allowed five more runs in the inning, postmarked by a three-run home run by Cam Collier to bring Chattanooga’s run total on the inning to 10 and give Chattanooga a 12-3 lead before the final out was finally recorded.
Chattanooga tacked on one more insurance run in the eighth inning for good measure to make it 13-3 late.
Knoxville had plenty of baserunners throughout the game, but failed to find enough of those big hits to build on their lead early or try to come back late. When it was all said and done, Knoxville had collected 12 hits and three walks, but went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 13 runners on base as they lost 13-3.
Game 4: That’s More Like It
After wasting two gems by their starting pitching, Knoxville needed to turn the page and get back into the win column against what was supposed to be a struggling Chattanooga team.
Luis Martinez-Gomez started on the mound for the Smokies, but held an ERA over 12 against the Lookouts coming into the game.
Knoxville’s offense gave him a lead early, as Alex Ramirez launched an opposite field home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning for his 300th career RBI. Chattanooga responded with a run of their own in the top of the second inning, but Knoxville took the lead back on an RBI double by Edgar Alvarez in the bottom of the third.
Martinez-Gomez made the best of what he had, allowing two runs, one earned run, on two hits and two walks while striking out three in 3+ innings of work on Friday. The Smokies’ bullpen picked him up, however, turning the page from their poor performances the two games prior. Four Smokies arms combined to cover the final six innings of the game, allowing just one run and five hits while striking out five between the four of them.
Knoxville’s offense also made the adjustment. After struggling to find the big hits in Thursday’s contest, the Smokies went 5-for-17 with runners in scoring position, scoring three runs in the sixth inning, two runs in the seventh inning, and one more run in the eighth inning to give Knoxville an 8-3 lead. Ras again closed it out for Knoxville as they won 8-3.
Game 5: Two Arms, Nine Innings, Sixteen Strikeouts
Saturday was Knoxville's best game of the week. As manager Lance Rymel likes to say, it was complimentary baseball.
Dawson Netz started on the mound for the Smokies and followed the trend this week, tossing five more shutout innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out nine, tying a career high in strikeouts.
Knoxville gave him two runs of support on a two-RBI double by Alex Ramirez in the fourth inning to make it 2-0 Knoxville.
After his five innings of work, Rymel turned to Tyler Schlaffer out of the bullpen. Schlaffer followed almost exactly in Netz’s footsteps, going four innings, allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out seven, the most strikeouts by Schlaffer in a relief outing this season.
Carter Trice provided more offense in the eighth inning, driving in a run on an RBI double and then forcing a throwing error by the pitcher on a steal of third, allowing Trice to come home with the fourth run of the game for the Smokies.
Schlaffer earned the four out save as Knoxville looked much more like a playoff team in Saturday’s 4-0 shutout victory.
Game 6: A Little Too Close For Comfort
With a chance to take their final home series of the 2026 season, Knoxville was looking for a win in Sunday’s series finale. Connor Schultz was on the mound for the Smokies and threw well.
Over four innings of work, Schultz allowed just one unearned run on four hits and one walk while striking out three. Schultz got plenty of run support from his offense, as he always does. Averaging four runs of support per start coming into Sunday’s game, the Smokies decided to bump that number up.
The Smokies hit three no-doubt home runs in the first three innings of the game. First, Miguel Useche gave the Smokies a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run home run to the deepest part of the park in left center field. Ramirez followed suit with a two-run home run of his own to make it 4-0.
Chattanooga scored once in the top of the third inning on an RBI groundout by Yerlin Confidan, but Andy Garriola erased that in the next half inning by launching a tape measure shot to left center field for his 22nd home run of the season, a new career high. Alex Madera also drove in a run on an RBI double to make it 6-1 Smokies after three innings.
Santy was first out of the bullpen for the Smokies and again seemed to struggle. Aided by some poor infield defense, Santy allowed three runs, two earned on two hits and two walks in his lone inning of work. Chattanooga was chipping away, now only trailing 6-4.
Chattanooga got another run in the sixth inning to make it 5-6, but Yenrri Rojas came on in the seventh inning and did not give up the ball. Rojas tossed three perfect innings to close out the game and give the Smokies the 6-5 win in game five and the series win over Chattanooga.
Wrap Up
The bullpen was Knoxville’s main point of concern in the series against their in-state rival. In 27 innings pitched this week, Knoxville’s bullpen allowed 24 hits, 16 walks and 24 runs (20 earned runs) to the tune of a 6.67 ERA.
The offense did enough most of the time to give their pitching staff a lead to hold on to, but there was certainly a good amount of runs left on the table for this offense, leaving 45 runners on base, tied for the most in the Southern League this week.
Knoxville starting pitching was otherworldly. In 27 innings pitched, Knoxville’s starting pitching staff allowed 15 hits, seven walks, five runs (three earned) while striking out 36, logging a 1.00 ERA, a 0.81 WHIP, and a 5.14 K/BB ratio. The ERA and WHIP were the best in any level High-A or higher.
Knoxville will travel down to Birmingham for the final series of the regular season as they prepare themselves for the postseason and wait to see who they will face in the first round. Will they stay in Birmingham for game one on September 15, or will they travel to Rocket City before hosting the first ever playoff game at Covenant Health Park on September 17?
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