By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — The Nashville Sounds are enjoying a strong season thus far, and stand in second place among Southeast Division teams in the Eastern portion of Triple A’s Eastern Division with a 30-16 record. They’ve won six of their last 10 games and began a six-game series with Louisville Tuesday night. They concluded a six game home series with Charlotte Sunday by winning yet another thriller. They got a 5-4 walkoff win, their third in the last four games. Mitch Longo scored on a fielder’s choice from Corey Ray in front of 7,613 fans Sunday night at First Horizon Park. It was the Sounds third walk-off win in the last four games.
After Charlotte got an early 1-0 lead, the Sounds tied it in the bottom half of the second on a sacrifice fly from Payton Henry.
Jamie Westbrook gave the Sounds a 2-1 lead in a fifth with an RBI single, but Charlotte fought back to tie the game once more in the sixth. After the Sounds gained a 3-2 advantage on a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, Charlotte once more regained the lead in the seventh on a two-run homer from Marco Hernández. But Nashville continued its rally and in the ninth Ray’s grounder scored the winning one. hit a ground ball to the pitcher and Longo came in to score to give Nashville the 5-4 win.
Among team highlights recently, Ray has an eight game hitting streak. During that time he’s hit .344 with seven doubles and one home run. He’s also scored twice and knocked in eight runs. Jamie Westbrooks has a 17-game streak of reaching base safely and has hit nearly .400 (.397) in that stretch. He’s enjoyed nine multi-hit games, scored 12 runs and batted in 18 while also hitting three homers and seven doubles. Cooper Hummel had his sixth homer during the Charlotte series, and had nine hits in 21 at-bats over the six games. He had two homers, three doubles, a pair of home runs and batted in five while hitting .429 for the series..
The Sounds have also been masters of the walk-off victory. Sunday’s was their fifth of the young season. The Louisville Series continues on through the Fourth of July weekend at First Horizon Park.