Nashville Sounds lose close one to Omaha Storm Chasers 7-6 in Extra Innings

Nashville’s Jeremy Hermida Forces Extras With Three-Run Homer

Papillion, NE – The Nashville Sounds walked 10 batters, beaned two, and chucked three run-scoring wild pitches in Sunday afternoon’s 7-6 extra-innings loss to the Omaha Storm Chasers at Werner Park.

Trailing by three with two on and two out in the ninth inning, the Sounds got a lift from outfielder Jeremy Hermida, who drove the team’s third home run of the game deep over the right-field wall, leveling the score at six runs apiece.

But in extras, it was more of the same from Nashville pitchers, who struggled to locate pitches all day. Reliever Michael Blazek (0-2) allowed two singles to begin the bottom of the 10th inning, which put runners on the corners for Omaha.

Blazek followed with a wild pitch that hopped to the backstop and gave the Storm Chasers the walk-off victory.

The Sounds’ pitching staff entered the game with 45 walks on the season, the third-fewest in the Pacific Coast League. Their 10 walks are the most allowed this season, previously offering six to Omaha on April 11th.

Nashville took the initial lead in the third inning via the bat of outfielder Kevin Mattison, who belted a home run over the right-center field wall. The solo shot gave the Sounds a one-run advantage and Mattison his second home run in three days.

The Storm Chasers tied it up in the home half of the third inning with Christian Colon’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

Nashville’s Hunter Morris, two-for-four, broke the tie in the fourth inning by blasting a two-run home run over the right-field wall. The homer, Morris’ second of the season, scored outfielder Caleb Gindl, two-for-four, who singled through the hole at shortstop to reach base.

The three bombs from Mattison, Morris and Hermida gives Nashville its first multi-homer game of the season. The shots also helped extend each batter’s heat streaks: five games for Morris, three for Mattison and two for Hermida.

Omaha again battled back to tie the game, scoring a run on Jesus Flores’ RBI single in the fourth and Matt Fields’ sacrifice-fly in the fifth.

Tied 3-3 in the seventh inning, Omaha took their first lead of the game courtesy of reliever Dustin Molleken’ s bases-loaded wild pitch. The 29-year-old Canadian offered a walk, his third in a row, to load the bases again for the Storm Chasers and end his afternoon.

Reliever Kyle Heckathorn stepped in to close out the seventh inning, but not before the Chasers picked up their third sacrifice-fly to make it a 5-3 ballgame. Heckathorn loaded the bases in the following inning and, like Molleken and Blazek, tossed a wild pitch to the backstop to score a run for Omaha.

Sounds starting pitcher Johnny Hellweg left the game with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning. The 6-foot-9 hurler allowed two runs on four hits, five walks, a fielding error and one hit batsmen. Reliever Brent Leach took over in the fourth, allowing one run on two hits over 1 1/3 innings of work.

Mattison, one-for-two, left the game in the fifth inning after crashing into the outfield wall trying to snag a fly ball.

The Sounds play game three against the Storm Chasers (AAA-Royals) at 6:35pm on Monday night. The Sounds will send RHP Jimmy Nelson (1-1, 2.50) to the hill opposite the Chasers LHP John Lamb (0-3, 5.63). Jeff Hem has the call on 102.5-FM “The GAME”.

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