Frankie Scalzo Jr. inherited a tie game in the eighth inning Saturday night, but not the momentum. Knoxville had just left the potential go-ahead runs at second and third with nobody out, wasting its best chance to take control at Regions Field.
Birmingham needed only one batter to make that missed opportunity hurt.
Alec Briley led off the bottom of the eighth with his 30th home run, breaking a 2-2 tie and starting the three-run rally that sent the Smokies to a 5-2 loss. Scalzo allowed all three runs in his lone inning, turning a game Knoxville had pulled back even into a late collapse.
The Smokies finished with three hits, two of them from Carter Trice, whose extra-base swings supplied nearly all of their offensive force. His second came at the most promising moment: Ariel Armas walked to begin the eighth, and Trice drove a sharp liner into the center-field gap. The ball dropped in front of Samuel Zavala, Armas raced to third and Trice pulled into second with his 29th double.
Knoxville had two runners in scoring position before Mathias LaCombe had recorded an out. Neither moved again. Alex Madera struck out, Angel Cepeda popped out and Edgar Alvarez flew to left, preserving the tie and leaving the middle of the Smokies’ order with a squandered opening.
Briley erased it quickly with his leadoff homer against Scalzo.
Samuel Zavala walked and Ryan Burrowes lined a single to right, putting runners at the corners. Jacob Burke followed with a softer ball into shallow center. Kane Kepley charged and dived, but the ball glanced away and fell in front of him as Zavala scored for a 4-2 lead. After a wild pitch and a hit batter loaded the bases, Jordan Sprinkle’s force-out grounder brought Burrowes home with the final run.
Scalzo struck out two and walked two while taking the loss, falling to 4-3. He was charged with three earned runs in one inning.
Knoxville had spent most of the night trying to escape an earlier two-run hole. Dawson Netz struck out six and walked one in 3 2/3 innings, but Birmingham broke through after two outs in the fourth. Zavala walked, Burrowes doubled and Burke punched a sharp single into center. Kepley kept the ball in front of him, but his throw home was too late as both runners scored. The runs were charged to Netz, who had departed before Burke’s hit.
Luis Martinez-Gomez kept the Smokies within reach from there, working 3 1/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and three walks.
Birmingham starter Dylan Cumming held Knoxville scoreless for five innings, allowing only one hit despite issuing four walks. The Smokies finally answered against Phil Fox in the sixth.
Armas was hit by a pitch, and Trice lashed a 1-2 offering toward right-center. The ball carried to the wall, where Zavala overran it, allowing Armas to score while Trice raced around the bases and slid headfirst into third with an RBI triple. Madera walked, and Cepeda lifted a deep sacrifice fly to center that scored Trice and advanced Madera to third.
That tied the game, but another chance ended when Alvarez’s fielder’s choice retired Madera at home.
Trice finished 2-for-3 with a triple, a double and a walk. Cepeda supplied Knoxville’s only other hit and drove in the tying run. The rest of the lineup went hitless, leaving the Smokies with too little margin when their eighth-inning opportunity disappeared—and none once Briley sent the next half-inning in Birmingham’s direction.