Nashville Sounds hold off late Salt Lake Bees rally for 8-6 win

Salt Lake City, UT – The Nashville Sounds defeated the Salt Lake Bees, 8-6, on Monday evening at Smith’s Ballpark.

Right-hander Taylor Jungmann (3-4) turned in his best outing in his past four starts, picking up the victory with a quality start for Nashville. He held the Bees to two runs on four hits over six frames of work.

Catcher Matt Pagnozzi homered and drove in three runs while Pete Orr went 3-for-4 and Caleb Gindl also plated three to lead the Sounds’ offensive effort.

The Sounds got out to a quick start against Joel Pineiro, grabbing a 3-0 lead with a two-out rally in the top of the first inning. After the first two batters were retired, Nashville filled the bags with a pair of walks sandwiched around a Hunter Morris single before Gindl cleared the bases with a three-run double to right.

After Salt Lake got a run back in the second on an Ian Stewart RBI single, Nashville upped its lead to 6-1 in the fourth. Orr contributed an RBI knock before Pagnozzi slugged a two-run homer to  left off Pineiro, the backstop’s sixth big fly of the year.

Pineiro (1-2) was saddled with the loss after giving up six runs on seven hits in his five frames of action.

The Bees got another run back in the home half of the fifth when a leadoff walk came back to haunt Jungmann. John Hester drew the free pass and later raced home on a Tommy Field sacrifice fly to make it a 6-2 contest.

Nashville got the run right back in the top of the sixth against Salt Lake reliever Anthony Lerew when Gindl led off with a single and later scored on Pagnozzi’s two-out single to left. The Sounds missed a chance at a larger output, leaving the bases loaded in the frame.

Salt Lake center fielder Matt Long pulled the Bees back within 7-4 in the seventh when he roped a two-run homer just over the wall in the right field corner off Sounds reliever Dustin Molleken.

Logan Schafer tacked a run onto the Nashville lead in the top of the eighth when his two-out RBI double to right plated Orr, who had opened the frame with a single off Yoslan Herrera.

The Bees didn’t go down without a fight in the final inning against Nashville reliever Jeremy Jeffress.

Pinch-hitter Jack Shuck led off with a single and raced around to score on Taylor Lindsay’s double to the right-center gap. After a strikeout, the Sounds’ right-hander issued a walk to Field to bring the potential tying run to the plate in the person of Luis Jimenez, who slapped an RBI single to left to cut the Sounds’ lead to 8-6. Jeffress recovered to fan Brennan Bosch and Stewart in succession to close out the victory.

The Sounds will look to secure just their second winning road series of the year when the teams wrap up the four-game set with a 1:05pm CT finale on Tuesday afternoon. Right-hander Johnnie Lowe (0-2, 4.79) will make the start for the Sounds and face Salt Lake right-hander Jared Grube (4-2, 4.92).

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