PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Sounds Rally Late To Take Home Finale, 7-6

September 3, 2009 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Nashville Sounds sent the fans home happy as they concluded their 2009 regular season home slate by rallying from a five-run deficit to post a 7-6 victory over the division-leading Memphis Redbirds on Thursday evening at historic Greer Stadium.

With the victory, Nashville (73-67) pulled back within a half-game of the first-place Redbirds with four games remaining in the season.

The Sounds split the four-game series with their cross-state rivals and posted a 10-6 victory in the season series between the clubs.

Shortstop Adam Heether enjoyed his second two-homer game of the season for Nashville, pacing the club with three RBIs on the night including a go-ahead two-run blast in the seventh.

Nashville trailed 6-1 in the seventh inning before staging a six-run rally in the frame against the Memphis bullpen to claim the victory. It was the club's ninth win this year when trailing in the seventh inning or later.

The scoring started early as the clubs exchanged runs in the first inning. After David Freese put Memphis on the board when he plated Tyler Greene with a two-out RBI single off Sounds starter Chase Wright, Heether answered in the bottom of the frame with a two-out solo homer to left to knot the score at 1-1. The blast, which came against Redbirds starter Jaime Garcia, was the infielder's 15th of the year.

Memphis pulled back in front with a three-run third against Wright. Greene (3-for-5) led off with a single, stole second and third, and put the visitors on top when he scored on Allen Craig's RBI single to left. After Freese and Jarrett Hoffpauir each singled to load the bases with no outs, Wright recovered to strike out the next two batters before Shane Robinson blooped a two-run single into shallow center to make it a 4-1 contest.

The Redbirds tacked on a pair of runs in the fourth against Sounds reliever Robert Hinton, who replaced Wright to start the frame. Jon Jay led off with a walk and moved to second on a Greene single, the infielder's third hit of the night. Hinton then uncorked a pair of wild pitches to allow Jay to score. Craig added a sacrifice fly to push the Memphis lead to 6-1.

Nashville rallied to take its first lead of the evening with a six-run rally in the home half of the seventh, sending 10 batters to the plate against the Redbirds bullpen.

Second baseman Johnny Raburn made it a 6-3 contest when he lifted a two-run homer to right off Memphis reliever Matt Scherer. Mat Gamel preceded Raburn with a single and scored on the blast, his second of the year.

The Sounds' rally continued when Patrick Arlis reached on a bunt single and Joe Koshansky walked. Following a wild pitch by Memphis reliever Charlie Manning, Tike Redman lifted a sacrifice fly to left. Corey Patterson followed and slapped Royce Ring's only pitch of the contest down the right field line for a run-scoring double.

After the third Memphis pitching change of the inning, Heether belted his second home run of the night, greeting Josh Kinney with a go-ahead two-run homer to left that gave the Sounds a 7-6 lead.

John Axford (5-0) picked up the victory for Nashville after working two scoreless innings of relief. David Johnson worked a scoreless ninth to notch his fifth save of the year.

Kinney (3-3) absorbed the loss for the Redbirds after giving up Heether's go-ahead homer in his one-third of an inning of action.

The Sounds travel to New Orleans on Friday for a regular season-ending four-game series at Zephyr Field. Left-hander Chris Cody (8-7, 4.77) will make the start for Nashville in Friday's 7:05 p.m. CT series opener to face New Orleans right-hander Clay Hensley (8-4, 3.74).

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Pacific Coast League Stories from September 3, 2009


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