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The Rocket City Trash Pandas came within one run of the Tennessee Smokies in the late innings Tuesday night but ultimately fell 7-6 in the opener of a six-game series at Smokies Stadium.

Rocket City’s Luis Aviles Jr. hit a solo shot to left-center on the first pitch of the game from Tennessee starter Cam Sanders to give the Trash Pandas an early 1-0 advantage.

Janson Junk, the starting pitcher for the Trash Pandas, wasn’t able to maintain that lead for very long. The Smokies tied things up at 1-1 on back-to-back doubles from Nelson Maldonado and Brennan Davis. Nelson Velazquez followed up with a two-run blast to give the Smokies a 3-1 lead.

More runs came around to score for the Smokies in the bottom of the second after an error by the Trash Pandas defense that allowed the fourth run to score.

Tim Susnara hit a RBI double to score Christopher Morel in the third, and Maldonado launched a two-run blast to put the Smokies up 6-1 in the fourth.

In his four innings pitched, Junk gave up six runs, five earned, on 10 hits while walking none and striking out seven.

Reliever Luke Leftwich was first out of the bullpen for the Trash Pandas and struck out side in the fifth before giving up a run in the sixth.

The offense got going in the seventh for the Trash Pandas. With the bases juiced and two outs, Brendon Davis got a free pass to score Ray-Patrick Didder from third. David MacKinnon made it one-run game after belting a grand slam over the left field wall.

But Tennessee reliever Erich Uelman was able to halt the comeback by the Trash Pandas in the eighth and ninth to seal the victory for the Smokies.

The Trash Pandas only had four hits, with the home runs by Aviles and MacKinnon being the only extra-base hits.