PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Sounds Fall to Zephyrs, 2-1

Published on April 20, 2011 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


METAIRIE, La. - The New Orleans Zephyrs used a pair of early home runs and a solid pitching performance to defeat the Nashville Sounds, 2-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Zephyr Field.

With the defeat, Nashville (6-8) has now dropped six of its last seven contests. It was the Sounds' sixth one-run loss of the year.

All three runs in the contest came on solo home runs as the two pitching staffs combined to allow only six total hits on the afternoon (four hits by Nashville, two hits by New Orleans). The Zephyrs made the most of their two knocks on the day - both left the yard.

New Orleans right fielder Bryan Petersen gave the home club an early 1-0 lead when he led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homer to right-center off Sounds starter Frankie De La Cruz. The blast, which came on a 2-1 pitch, was the outfielder's second longball of the season.

The Zephyrs doubled their advantage to 2-0 in the second with another leadoff roundtripper, this one off the bat of left fielder Chris Aguila, his second of the year.

After placing runners on base in each of the first three innings but coming up empty, the Sounds finally got a run back in the top of the fourth when Brendan Katin slugged his team-leading fourth home run of the year, a one-out solo shot to left off New Orleans starter Tom Koehler.

After Katin's longball, New Orleans pitchers combined to face the minimum the rest of the way. The next 13 consecutive Nashville batters were set down in succession before Eric Farris singled with two outs in the top of the eighth, but he was caught stealing to end the inning. In the contest, Farris went 2-for-4 to extend the Sounds' longest hitting streak of the young season to five games.

Milwaukee Brewers All-Star outfielder Corey Hart played in his second rehab game with the Sounds and went 0-for-3 before being removed in the middle of the sixth inning. He is hitless in five at-bats in his two contests with Nashville.

Koehler (2-0) turned in a quality start for the Z's, holding the Sounds to one run (on Katin's homer) and three hits over his six innings of work.

Burke Badenhop and Dustin Richardson each worked a scoreless frame of relief for New Orleans, with Richardson picking up his first save of the year.

De La Cruz (0-1) also worked a quality start but took a hard-luck loss for Nashville. He allowed only two hits (both were solo homers) while striking out nine batters during his seven frames of action on the afternoon. His 103-pitch effort matched the longest outing by a Sounds starter this season.

Mark DiFelice followed De La Cruz on the hill for Nashville and struck out two of his three batters faced.

The teams continue the series with a 7:05 p.m. meeting on Thursday night. Left-hander Sam Narron (0-0, 5.59) will man the bump for the Sounds and face New Orleans right-hander Adalberto Mendez (1-1, 5.40).

Check out the Nashville Sounds Statistics

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Pacific Coast League Stories from April 20, 2011


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