Nashville Sounds blanked 3-0 by New Orleans Zephyrs Monday afternoon

Nashville Sounds Baseball

Metairie, LA – A pair of New Orleans hurlers combined on a four-hit shutout as the Zephyrs blanked the Nashville Sounds, 3-0, on Monday afternoon in the finale of a four-game series.

Z’s left-hander Brian Flynn (5-3) held the Sounds to four singles over eight scoreless innings to earn the victory. The southpaw issued one walk and struck out three Nashville batters. Chaz Roe inherited a pair of baserunners in the ninth but work flawlessly out of the jam to complete the shutout.

Eugenio Velez, Hector Gomez, and Sean Halton produced the four Nashville hits in the game. Velez extended his hitting streak to a season-best six games with a 2-for-4 afternoon.

New Orleans struck first, grabbing a 1-0 lead against Mike Fiers in the third inning when Juan Diaz hit a leadoff double and later scored on a Josh Rodriguez sacrifice fly.

The Sounds had a chance to tie the game in the fourth. Gomez singled and attempted to score standing up on Halton’s double into the right field corner but was tagged out a half-step before reaching the plate.

The Z’s doubled their lead to 2-0 in the sixth when Rodriguez led off with a bunt single, was sacrificed to second, and scored on Jake Marisnick’s RBI single to left.

Fiers (6-2) suffered his second loss of the year despite working his seventh quality start. He allowed two runs on five hits while striking out seven batters and walking none in his six-inning, 90-pitch effort.

Left-hander Brent Leach took over on the Nashville hill in the seventh and was greeted by a Brian Bogusevic opposite-field homer to left-center. The outfielder’s first big fly of the year upped the New Orleans lead to 3-0.

The Sounds did not have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the ninth inning.

In the final frame, Pete Orr drew a leadoff walk from Flynn and moved to second on a Velez single, which chased Flynn from the contest. Roe took over on the hill and popped up Gomez, induced a fielder’s choice from Caleb Gindl, and retired Halton on a game-ending flyout to secure the shutout and nail down his third save of the season.

The Sounds begin an eight-game homestand tomorrow evening at Greer Stadium. Right-hander Michael Blazek (0-3, 5.33) will take the hill for Nashville in Tuesday’s 7:05pm opener of a four-game series against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Left-hander Tyler Matzek (4-2, 3.70) will provide the opposition.

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