Katin Goes Off, Sounds Pound Z's in Home Finale
August 29, 2010 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Nashville Sounds gave their fans an outstanding sendoff on Sunday evening at Greer Stadium, closing out their 2010 regular season home slate with a 10-1 victory over the New Orleans Zephyrs in the finale of a five-game series.
A crowd of 8,342 was on hand for the contest, bringing the Sounds' seasonal attendance total to 319,235, nearly 14,000 higher than last year.
Prior to the game, right fielder Brendan Katin was honored as the 2010 Sounds Fan Favorite, an award resulting from fan voting. He promptly thanked the fans in attendance by tying a team record with seven RBIs on the night. The Sounds' cleanup hitter slugged a pair of homers, including a grand slam, to highlight a 3-for-5 night at the plate to pace the Nashville offensive attack.
Right-hander Josh Butler (5-1) was dominant on the hill for Nashville, allowing one run on two hits over eight outstanding innings of work to earn his fifth victory in seven starts for the Sounds. He retired 13 consecutive New Orleans batters from the first through fifth frames and allowed only a pair of singles on the night.
The heart of the Nashville batting order did the bulk of the damage as the two through five hitters - Ray Olmedo, Mat Gamel, Katin, and Joe Koshansky - combined to go 10-for-20 with nine RBIs and nine runs scored on the night.
Nashville (72-63) took four of five from the Zephyrs in the series and has won 10 of its last 14 contests overall. The Sounds trail first-place Iowa by five games with nine games left on their schedule.
New Orleans jumped out to a first-inning lead against Sounds starter Josh Butler with a two-out rally. After the first two batters of the frame were retired, Brian Barden and Mike Lamb drew back-to-back walks before Z's second baseman Danny Richar lined an RBI single to center to bring home Barden with the evening's first run.
Katin quickly erased that early Z's lead by belting a grand slam in the home half of the first to give the Sounds a 4-1 lead.
Adam Stern opened the frame with a walk then Olmedo and Gamel singled off New Orleans right-hander Nic Ungs to fill the bags for Katin, who smashed his 20th home run of the year off the neck portion of the guitar-shaped scoreboard in left-center. Katin's bases-loaded blast was Nashville's fourth grand slam of the year.
Nashville tacked on two more runs against Ungs in the third to up its lead to 6-1. Katin led off with a single and came around to score when Koshansky followed with an RBI double down the right field line. Koshansky, who extended his longest hitting streak of the year to nine games with a 3-for-5 effort in the contest, scored the frame's second run later in the frame on Norris Hopper's bloop single to right.
The Sounds stretched the lead to 9-1 in the fourth when Katin swatted a three-run homer to left to chase Ungs from the contest.
Ungs (1-2), who pitched for Nashville in 2008, took the loss for New Orleans after surrendering nine runs on 12 hits over three-plus innings of work.
Koshansky got into the longball act in the sixth, belting his team-leading 24th roundtripper of the year with one out off New Orleans reliever Matt Peterson to make it a 10-1 contest.
Barden recorded one of the two Zephyrs hits on the night to extend his longest hitting streak of the year to 14 games.
The Sounds embark upon their final road trip of the season, a nine-game jaunt to Oklahoma City and New Orleans, on Monday. Right-hander Tim Dillard (4-6, 4.34) will take the hill for Nashville for Monday's 7:05 p.m. series opener at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. The RedHawks will counter with right-hander Brandon McCarthy (3-1, 3.80).
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