Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds earned their first walk-off win of the season and completed their largest comeback of the year, taking down the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 7-6 in extra-innings on Thursday night at First Horizon Park.
Down 6-1, a five-run bottom of the seventh knotted things up until Eddie Rosario delivered the game-winning RBI with a long single off the top of the right field wall in the bottom of the 11th inning.
It was a 2-1 RailRiders lead after the second before the Yankees Triple-A affiliate jumped out to a 5-1 lead after four. Former Sound Alex Jackson extended the RailRiders lead to 6-1 with his second home run of the game in the top of the seventh.
Nashville’s comeback began with Nick Kahle collecting his second and third RBI of the game with one-out in the Sounds’ half after the stretch. With the bases loaded, Bobby Dalbec brought the Sounds within one on a two-RBI single of his own. Ernesto Martinez evened the score with a RBI single but the Sounds stranded the bases loaded before being able to take the first lead of the night.
After tying the game, Ryan Middendorf was the first of three different relievers used by Nashville to keep the RailRiders at bay. The right-hander worked a scoreless eighth and pitched around a two-out walk. Vinny Nittoli worked two high-leverage innings following him. Nittoli left one stranded in scoring position in the top of the ninth following another two-out walk and stolen base for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Back on the mound for the top of the 10th, Nittoli struck out two including the final out after a stolen base put the potential go-ahead run on third with no outs. Nashville had their chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th after loading the bases with one out but were unable to capitalize.
Garrett Stallings took over pitching duties for the Sounds in the 11th and struck out the side after the RailRiders had runners on the corners and nobody out.
With two outs, and two strikes in the bottom of the 11th, Rosario turned on a changeup and roped the walk-off single off the top of the right-field wall as the Sounds scored the final six runs of the game to get their first walk-off win of the year.
Ahead 3-0 in the series, Nashville has their fourth straight series win in sights heading into Memorial Day Weekend. First pitch on Friday night is scheduled for 6:35pm.
