MADISON, Alabama – The Rocket City Trash Pandas rallied late to tie the game. Ultimately, an eighth-inning home run and two more runs in the ninth spoiled the comeback effort in a 7-3 loss to the Tennessee Smokies in the finale of a six-game series at Toyota Field on Sunday afternoon.

The Trash Pandas (27-30) hit the road to begin a six-game series with the Chattanooga Lookouts (31-25) on Tuesday night. More updates on that series will be provided later in the week.

The six-game series between the North Division rivals ended as a split, with each team winning three games. The Trash Pandas now sit four and half games behind first-place Chattanooga in the first half North Division standings with 12 games remaining.

The game began with Trash Pandas starter Zac Kristofak and Smokies righty Chris Kachmar trading zeroes for the first three innings.

In the fourth, Tennessee broke through with three straight singles to score the first run of the game, capped by Haydn McGeary’s ground ball through the right side of the infield to score Luis Vazquez. Two hitters later, Nelson Maldonado’s sacrifice fly plated Owen Caissie to make it a 2-0 game.

Rocket City looked to respond against Kachmar in the bottom of the frame as Kyren Paris reached with a one-out double. He advanced to third on a fly out from Orlando Martinez. Kachmar got through the jam unscathed by getting Sonny DiChiara to ground out, stranding the runner at third.

The Smokies tacked on a run in the fifth as Pete Crow-Armstrong singled, advanced to second on a balk, and came around to score on an RBI single from Luis Vazquez. Kristofak was removed after five innings, allowing three runs on six hits with four strikeouts in a no-decision. Robinson Pina entered in relief and kept the deficit at three with two scoreless relief innings.

For the Smokies, Kachmar pitched four scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking out two. Samuel Reyes was first out of the Tennessee bullpen and threw two scoreless innings to maintain the 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Rocket City offense took their time to get back into the game against new Smokies reliever Danis Correa. DiChiara, Kevin Maitan, and Jose Gomez all walked to load the bases with nobody out. Bryce Teodosio kept the train moving with a walk of his own, the Trash Pandas’ fourth straight, to score DiChiara and get the Trash Pandas on the board. From there, the Smokies turned to Carlos Guzman (W, 2-1) out of the bullpen. He immediately balked to score Maitan, and Livan Soto’s ground out to second scored Gomez with the tying run as Rocket City plated three runs without a hit.

But in the eighth, the Smokies used a two-out outburst to take the lead. After striking out the first two hitters he faced, Ivan Armstrong (L, 0-2) hit Caissie to put the go-ahead run on base. Haydn McGeary restored the Tennessee lead with a two-run homer to left, his sixth of the season to put the Smokies in front 5-3.

The Smokies put the game out of reach in the ninth with Scott McKeon’s two-run triple off Dakota Donovan to make it a 7-3 game. Cayne Ueckert retired the Trash Pandas in order in the bottom half to finish the win for the visitors.

At the plate, Gomez was the only Rocket City hitter to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.