KODAK, Tenn. — The Rocket City Trash Pandas struggled early and couldn’t recover for the second straight night, falling to the Tennessee Smokies 7-0.
For the second straight day, the Smokies opened the scoring as Matt Shaw homered off Jack Kochanowicz (L, 0-1) in the first inning to give Tennessee a 1-0 lead.
With Shaw at the plate in the third, the Smokies added another run as a wild pitch scored James Triantos. Haydn McGeary, who ended yesterday’s game with a walk-off hit, struck again with a run-scoring double later in the inning.
Tennessee kept it going in the fourth as Triantos doubled to plate two more runs extending the Smokies lead to five.
Kochanowicz exited the game during the fourth inning as Hayden Seig struck out the first batter, he faced with the bases loaded to close the floodgates.
The Smokies had a perfect game bid until the sixth inning where a Mac McCroskey walk gave the Trash Pandas their first base runner. Nelson Rada added on the first hit of the game for Rocket City as the Angels top prospect recorded his first at the Double-A level against Smokies pitcher Michael Arias (W, 1-0).
Tennessee got back on the scoreboard in the seventh McGeary drove in Shaw on a hit-and-run single and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Christian Franklin extended the Smokies lead to 7-0.
The score would remain there the rest of the way as the Trash Pandas were held to just two hits in the loss.
Rocket City (0-2, 0-2 second half) will wrap up its three-game series with Tennessee on Sunday. First pitch at Smokies Stadium is set for 1:00 p.m. CT.