Sounds Season Ends With 11-10, 11-Inning Loss
Published on August 29, 2008 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release
METAIRIE, La. - The Nashville Sounds closed out their season on a sour note on Friday evening, blowing a pair of late leads before suffering an 11-10, 11-inning loss to the New Orleans Zephyrs at Zephyr Field in the teams' 2008 finale.
The final three contests of the teams' scheduled four-game series were cancelled due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Gustav.
Outfielder Brendan Katin was set to wear the hero's star for Nashville after he belted a go-ahead three-run homer, his second longball of the evening, to give the visitors a 9-6 lead in the top of the ninth inning, but the Sounds' bullpen relinquished the lead in the bottom of the frame.
The Sounds again took a 10-9 lead in the top of the eleventh but Zephyrs outfielder Chris Aguila answered in the bottom of the frame with a two-run homer to left off Erasmo Ramirez to propel the home team to a dramatic, season-ending victory. The roundtripper, which also scored Val Pascucci (single), was Aguila's second of the night and 29th of the year.
In the top of the eleventh, the Sounds had posted the go-ahead run without the benefit of a hit. Mat Gamel drew a walk from Zephyrs reliever Ivan Maldonado and moved to second when Adam Heether was hit by a pitch before scoring from second using aggressive baserunning on Carlos Corporan's fielder's choice grounder that forced Heether at second.
Maldonado (4-5) backed into the victory for the Zephyrs despite giving up a run in his lone inning of work. Ramirez (3-5) took the loss for Nashville after surrendering the game-winning homer.
With the loss, the Sounds finished the 2008 campaign at 59-81, the worst record in the franchise's 31-year history.
Katin's 3-for-5 night for Nashville included his second two-homer game of the year as well as a season-best five RBIs and three runs scored as he upped his longball total to 19 on the season.
The Zephyrs grabbed a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning against Sounds starter Sam Narron. Trot Nixon got things started with a leadoff home run to right, his 14th longball of the year. After Pascucci reached on a fielding error by Gamel at third base, Michel Abreu delivered an RBI double before scoring on Aguila's two-run home run, the outfielder's 28th blast of the year.
The teams traded two-spots in the sixth. Katin belted a two-out homer off Z's reliever Brandon Knight in the top of the frame before Knight helped his own cause in the home half with a two-out, two-run double off Randy Choate that extended the New Orleans lead to 6-2. Knight came to the plate after Choate intentionally walked Ramon Martinez ahead of him to load the bases.
The Sounds pulled with 6-4 in the seventh with a pair of runs off Knight. Corporan belted a one-out solo homer to right, his third tater of the year, and Chris Woodward later added a two-out RBI single. Woodward finished the 2008 campaign on fire, hitting safely in 11 of his final 12 games at a blazing .404 clip (19-for-47) to finish the year with a .291 average.
Nashville evened the contest in the eighth by plating two runs against Zephyrs reliever Bobby Parnell. Katin led off with a double to right and scored two batters later on Heether's RBI double to left, the infielder's 31st two-bagger of the season. Callix Crabbe plated Heether with an RBI single to knot the contest at 6-6.
Pinch-hitter Vinny Rottino led off the Sounds' ninth with his career-best 30th double and was joined on the basepaths when Brad Nelson drew a walk from Z's reliever Carlos Muniz before both players scored on Katin's go-ahead three-run homer off the center field scoreboard, which gave Nashville what turned out to be a short-liver 9-6 cushion.
The Z's fought right back in the bottom of the ninth against Nashville reliever Luis Pena. Twelve of the right-hander's first 13 pitches of the inning were balls as he issued three consecutive free passes to Anderson Machado, Argenis Reyes, and Andy Green to load the bases with no outs before Sounds skipper Frank Kremblas summoned Richie Gardner to the mound.
Nixon greeted the right-hander by smacking his 1-2 offering deep to center for a bases-clearing, game-tying three-run double, knotting the score at 9-9. After Gardner retired the next two batters, he issued back-to-back walks to re-load the bases before inducing an inning-ending comebacker from pinch-hitter Jesus Feliciano to send the game to extra innings.
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