Sheets, Abernathy lead Sounds to 3-1 victory
Published on July 19, 2006 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release
OMAHA - Ben Sheets picked up a victory in his rehab start and Brent Abernathy belted a two-run home to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 3-1 victory over the Omaha Royals on a blazing Wednesday evening at Rosenblatt Stadium, where the game time temperature was 105 degrees.
With the win, Nashville (53-43) picked up its seventh victory in the last nine contests and improved to 10 games over .500 for the first time since May 7 when the Sounds were 20-10.
Sheets (2-1), who picked up his second victory in three PCL starts this season, worked 6 1/3 innings in his rehab outing and allowed one run on three hits while walking two batters and striking out four. The right-hander threw 87 pitches, 54 for strikes.
Omaha took a 1-0 lead against Sheets in the bottom of the second inning. Mike Aviles led off the frame with a single before being erased on a Rick Bell fielder's choice. Bell moved to third on a Matt Tupman single to left before scoring the game's first run on an Andres Blanco forceout grounder.
Abernathy spotted the visitors a 2-1 lead in the top of the third when he smacked a two-out, two-run homer to left off Royals starter Ryan Baerlocher. Jermaine Clark, who had reached on an error by right fielder Chad Allen, scored on the roundtripper, Abernathy's fourth of the year and first on the road.
Nashville upped its lead to 3-1 in the seventh when Graham Koonce, who finished 3-for-4 on the evening, doubled to open the frame against Omaha reliever Seth Etherton then scored on Zach Sorensen's two-out RBI single.
Baerlocher (4-4) took the loss after he allowed two unearned runs on three hits while striking out six batters over his six frames of action.
Steve Bray and Mitch Stetter each worked a scoreless inning of relief behind Sheets for Nashville before Allan Simpson came on to record the final two outs, striking out both batters he faced, to notch his eighth save of the year.
Sounds All-Star outfielder Nelson Cruz went 1-for-4 in the contest to extend his hitting streak to eight games.
The teams wrap up the four-game set with a 12:05 p.m. matinee on Thursday afternoon. Sounds right-hander Dennis Sarfate (7-5, 3.78) will take the mound to face Omaha right-hander Denny Bautista (1-3, 6.60).
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