Nashville Sounds loses 6-5 to Omaha Storm Chasers

Nashville Sounds Baseball

Velez Homers with Three RBIs; Morris Goes 3-For-4 with Two Doubles

Papillion, NE – The Nashville Sounds never recovered from a three-run fifth inning turned in by the Omaha Storm Chasers, who edged the Sounds by a 6-5 margin Sunday afternoon at Werner Park.

With the game tied 2-2, Sounds starting pitcher Hiram Burgos (0-1) allowed three hits in the bottom of the fifth inning, including a pair of RBI doubles to give the Storm Chasers their three-run advantage.

Burgos, the Brewers 2012 minor league pitcher of the year, was charged the loss and finished with five runs, three earned, on seven hits through 4 1/3 innings of work. He had one walk and one strikeout before reliever Alfredo Figaro stepped to the rubber in the fifth.

The Sounds worked two runs off Omaha reliever Ramon Troncoso in the seventh inning via outfielder Eugenio Velez’s RBI single and a Kevin Mattison sacrifice-fly, but the Storm Chasers kept the game out of reach by plating an insurance run in the eighth.

Omaha captured the initial lead in the first inning when Elian Herrera committed a fielding error on a potential inning-ending double play ball that allowed Brett Eibner to score. Brian Fletcher followed with an RBI-single off Burgos to put the home team up 2-0.

Catcher Robinzon Diaz helped Nashville cut into Omaha’s two-run lead, singling in the second inning before scoring on a wild pitch from Storm Chasers pitcher Danny Duffy (1-0). Sounds first baseman Hunter Morris, three-for-four, connected for two doubles on the day, his first to the warning track in right-centerfield put Diaz in scoring position.

The hot-hitting Velez, two-for-four, tied the game 2-2 in the fifth inning by launching his first home run of the season over the left-field wall. Velez, who entered the game with the league’s third-best average (.600, 3-for-5), finished with two runs and three RBIs. He has hit safely in each of his three starts.

Nashville picked up its final run in the ninth inning on a Velez groundout. Pinch-runner Pete Orr scored from third after advancing from first on two Michael Mariot wild pitches.

The Sounds relievers allowed one run in 3 2/3 innings of work, the lone run charged to Jose De La Torre in the eighth. Figaro pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings, while Blazek closed out the eighth inning after De La Torre’s early exit.

The Sounds start a new four-game set against the Iowa Cubs (Triple-A Cubs) on Monday night at 6:35 p.m. Throwing for the Sounds will be RHP Ariel Pena opposite Iowa’s lefty Tsuyoshi Wada. Sounds broadcaster Jeff Hem has the call on 94.9-FM “Game 2”.

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