PEARL — The Mississippi Braves had everything in place for a great finish on Thursday, down 5-3 to the visiting Tennessee Smokies.

There was only one out, bases were loaded and three-hole hitter Eric Duncan was already up 1-0 in the count with the Thirsty Thursday crowd at Trustmark Park doing the tomahawk chop.

It’s a shame the M-Braves couldn’t finish.

Duncan hit a changeup into the dirt back to the pitcher to start a game-ending 1-2-3 double play as the Smokies escaped with a 5-3 win.

The M-Braves dropped two games back of the Southern League South Division-leading Jacksonville Suns in the race for the second-half division title.

Mississippi dropped to 15-20 in one-run games this season.

“We had the right guy at the play, one of our best hitters,” M-Braves manager Phil Wellman said. “It’s like the old saying, sometimes you get the bear and the bear gets you.”

The M-Braves jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings, as Willie Cabrera earned his 49th RBI in the first off a bloop single to right and, in the second, new acquistion Tyler Pastornicky singled to right field to score leadoff man Antoan Richardson. The M-Braves managed to get to Smokies’ pitcher Chris Carpenter, one of the top prospects in the Chicago Cubs’ farm system. He left after five innings worked with a no decision, yielding seven hits, three runs and four walks.

Atlanta reliever Chris Resop, down in Class AA on a rehab assignment, worked 21⁄3 of an inning, surrendering five hits and two runs. M-Braves’ reliever Erik Cordier entered in the third and threw well until the seventh.

Blake Lalli, who had singled off Cordier for his first RBI in the third, fired a flare into shallow right with two on for the go-ahead runs.

“He made one bad pitch, a changeup to a lefty that got up in the zone and the guy singled it to right field for two runs,” Wellman said.

Despite the disappointing defeat, Pastornicky and Tim Collins, who were acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in the Yunel Escobar trade, showed why the Braves put them on a short list of prospects they wanted.

Pastornicky went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Collins, a 5-foot-7 pitcher with an exaggerated delivery like dimmunitive San Francisco Giants’ pitcher Tim Lincecum, worked a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.

“They’ve both contributed since they put a Braves’ uniform on,” Wellman said. “I’m very excited about them in the future. I think they’re going to be great additions to our club and at some point and times in their careers, they’ll be additions to the big league club.”