PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Ward Homers Twice To Lead Sounds Past Zephyrs

April 29, 2004 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


METAIRIE, La. -- Daryle Ward belted a pair of home runs, including a game-winning solo shot to lead off the eighth inning against former major-leaguer Bobby Chouinard, to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 6-5 victory over the division-rival New Orleans Zephyrs in the opener of a four-game series on Thursday evening at Zephyr Field.

With the win, the Sounds (10-10), who have won six of their last seven games following a 4-9 start, reached the .500 mark for the first time in 2004.

Ward extended his active team-high hitting streak to six games with a 2-for-4 effort that included his third and fourth longballs of the season. The blasts extended the Sounds' streak of consecutive games with a home run to 16. Catcher J.R. House continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-4 night that included a double.

After New Orleans took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Terry Shumpert knotted the contest in the third with an RBI single that plated Mike Moriarty. Nashville jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth behind a two-run Tony Alvarez double and a well-executed suicide squeeze by starting pitcher Sean Burnett.

Ward extended the Sounds' lead to 5-1 in the fifth when he belted New Orleans starter Jared Fernandez's 2-2 offering out of the yard for his first roundtripper of the evening, a solo shot.

The home team got things going offensively in the sixth, plating four runs against Burnett before right-hander Willis Roberts was summoned from the Nashville bullpen to quell the rally. The veteran reliever walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases with only one out but induced a double play grounder from Chris Burke to escape the jam.

Ward launched the first pitch of the eighth inning out of Zephyr Field to restake the Sounds to a 6-5 lead.

Nashville closer Mark Corey worked in and out of a jam in the bottom of the ninth to record his Pacific Coast League-leading fifth save of the year. Eric Bruntlett opened the frame by reaching on a Shumpert fielding error and Burke hit an infield single to put runners on first and second with none out.

After Royce Huffman failed in a sacrifice attempt and popped out to the catcher, Bruntlett and Burke moved up on their own, swiping third and second respectively against House. Corey worked out of the inning unscathed by fanning Jason Alfaro on a 3-2 pitch and retiring Phil Hiatt on a groundout.

Reliever Frank Brooks (1-1) picked up his first victory of the season with a scoreless frame of relief behind Burnett, who took a no-decision after allowing five runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings in his fourth career Triple-A start. Chouinard (0-2) took the loss after allowing Ward's game-winning homer.

The Sounds and Zephyrs play game two of the four-game set on Friday evening at Zephyr Field. Southpaw Dave Williams (0-1, 3.42) will start for Nashville. He'll be opposed by Houston Astros top prospect Taylor Bucholz (0-3, 7.32), a right-hander.

Check out the Nashville Sounds Statistics



Pacific Coast League Stories from April 29, 2004


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