Blue Wahoos’ Morissette Excites Family, Sellout Crowd In Win Over Lookouts

June 22, 2024

written by Bill Vilona

His grandparents and other relatives were waiting near home plate to embrace Cody Morissette following the Blue Wahoos’ 6-4 win Friday against the Chattanooga Lookouts.

The reunion was part of what had Morissette sporting a big grin.

The Blue Wahoos’ second baseman homered and tripled in his first two at-bats, a breakout kind of game that helped build a 6-0 lead in the third inning. The pitching staff did the rest to finish the game, even the series, and delight a sellout crowd (5,038) at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

“It’s always nice having (relatives in town). And to be able to perform like that, it’s always fun,” said Morissette, who drove in a pair of runs with his two big hits. “We had a lot of good at bats up and down the lineup and we’ve got to keep doing that moving forward.”

The Blue Wahoos’ lead happened quickly, nearly as fast as replica home jerseys were distributed on a Giveaway Friday, sponsored by Pepsi. Fans began waiting more than three hours before the game to receive one of the most-coveted giveaway items in recent team history.

The win pushed the Blue Wahoos (37-29) to eight games above .500 with the season’s first half ending on Sunday, but it failed to narrow the playoff-qualifying chase.

The Montgomery Biscuits pulled away from the Birmingham Barons in their game Friday, enabling the Biscuits to have two chances now at clinching the Southern League South Division first half race with a 1.5 game lead on Pensacola.

The Blue Wahoos won first half divisional races the past two seasons en route to reaching the championship series. No matter how the weekend ends, the Blue Wahoos have produced winning records in four of the five half-seasons in the past three years – not an easy feat with all the constant roster changes each time.

“I think (this first half) could have been better,” Morissette said. “But we are a scrappy group of guys and put ourselves in a position to have a chance at this.

“Our pitching staff has been lights out all year. You know, the bats have been unlucky at times, and we’re figuring it out as a lineup and that’s all we can do. To be one and a half games out with two games to go is the kind of baseball you want to play.

“So whether we win it or not, we’ve put ourselves in a position to play at a high level and try to win this first half.”

Facing Chattanooga starter Rhett Lowder – the Cincinnati Reds’ No. 1 rated prospect – the Blue Wahoos immediately jumped to a lead.

Paul McIntosh singled and Joe Mack walked with one out in the first inning. Nathan Martorella then laced a two-run double.

Morissette led off the second inning with a home run just over the wall into the right field berm. In the third inning, Mack led off with a homer against Lowder, then Jacob Berry followed with an RBI single and scored on Morissette’s triple.

“I’ve been just kind of working on my swing as of late,” Morissette said. “Baseball is a lot of ups and downs and just trying to stay loose, free and easy up there. (Friday) I felt that for the first time and was able to put the bat on the ball in some big situations.”

Blue Wahoos lefthander Cade Gibson, making his second start since joining the Blue Wahoos, worked into the fifth inning in a solid outing, allowing five hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. Chandler Jozwiak followed the next two innings to earn his third win.

Three more relievers followed. The Lookouts scored three runs in the ninth off Patrick Murphy, but he struck out Nick Northcut with two runners on base in the ninth to end the game.

Pensacola Catholic grad Donovan Benoit made his first appearance in the series for the Lookouts. He pitched a clean eighth inning with one strikeout and joined the handful of former Pensacola area players to play in Blue Wahoos Stadium for an opposing team.

The Blue Wahoos will try to take a lead in the series on Saturday with Luis Palacios on the mound in a game televised on Blab TV.

GAME NOTABLES

— Blue Wahoos players, including relievers Dale Stanovich and Kyle Crigger, who later made scoreless relief pitching appearances in Friday’s game, helped distribute the replica jerseys to the massive throng of fans entering the ballpark when gates opened in at 5 p.m.

The entire supply of 1,000 jerseys provided by sponsor Pepsi, were gone in seven minutes. That is an unofficial record for a giveaway item in Blue Wahoos franchise history. The first arriving fans were at the ballpark before 2:30, setting up folding chairs and outside of the main gate.

— Helping bolster the sellout crowd were 778 fans who were part of a wide variety of groups attending the game. There were more than a dozen groups attending the game on the party decks.

— Ryan Laskey, who worked as a Pensacola Air Traffic controller for the past 14 years, threw out a ceremonial first pitch. He is moving on to a new position out of the area.

WANT TO GO?

WHO: Chattanooga Lookouts vs. Blue Wahoos

WHEN: Saturday, 6:05 p.m.

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports