Memphis Redbirds Kolton Wong smacks two homers in 7-4 win over Nashville Sounds

Nashville, TN – Kolton Wong hit two home runs including a tenth inning solo blast to lead the Memphis Redbirds to a 7-4 win over the Nashville Sounds in front of 5,475 fans Tuesday night at First Tennessee Park.

The center fielder hit the second pitch he saw from J.B. Wendelken into The Band Box to break a 4-4 tie in extra innings.

The solo blast came just moments after the Sounds squandered a golden opportunity in the bottom of the ninth inning. With the game even at 4-4, Arismendy Alcantara sent a one-out triple into the left field corner to put the winning run 90 feet away.

Chad Pinder walked and moved to second on defensive indifference before Miguel Socolovich struck out Renato Nunez for the second out. Memphis intentionally walked Ryon Healy to load the bases and the move paid off when Socolovich struck out Colin Walsh to end the inning.

The Sounds scored a pair of runs in the first inning and extended the lead to 3-0 on Walsh’s sacrifice fly in the third.

Starter Angel Castro was cruising along until Wong crushed a three-run homer to deep right field to even the game at 3-3 in the fifth.

Pinder wasted little time getting the lead back for the Sounds in the home half of the fifth. The drilled the first pitch from Mike Mayers into the right field seats for his sixth home run of the season. He finished the night 3-for-4 with three runs scored.

Trailing 4-3 in the seventh, Memphis put runners at the corners with one out for Wong. He hit a ground ball to Alcantara at second. Nashville turned a 4-3-6 double play but not before Matt Williams came in to score.

The Sounds put runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings but couldn’t push across any runs, setting the stage for Memphis to take control.

The back-to-back losses are the first for the Sounds since they dropped two straight on May 5th and 6th. The second loss in that sequence was also to Memphis. The streak of seven consecutive winning series also comes to an end with just two games left in the four-game set.

Game three of the four-game series is set for Wednesday afternoon at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Dillon Overton (6-4, 3.63) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Arturo Reyes (5-3, 4.41) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05pm.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Tickets are available now by calling 615.690.4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com