Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds jumed out to an early lead which proved enough to hold off the Charlotte Knights comeback aspirations in Friday’s 7-6 win at First Horizon Park in front of a season-high 7,892 fans. Luke Adams capped a five-run second inning for Nashville in grand fashion and Coleman Crow earned his first career Triple-A win after tossing a quality start on the mound.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the second inning, Charlotte’s Duncan Davitt plunked Freddy Zamora for the first run of the game. Two batters later, Adams sent a hanging slider 397 feet into left field to extend the Sounds lead to 5-0. Adams, the Brewers no. 13-rated prospect had begun the season 0-for-15 after a first-inning line out. The grand slam was his first home run since June 15th with Double-A Biloxi a season ago.
Crow retired each of the first nine batters he faced to begin his night on the mound with three strikeouts. Dustin Harris ended Crows’ streak of 10 straight retired with a one-out double in the top of the fourth. A single right after placed runners on the corners for former Sound Oliver Dunn, who put the Knights on the scoreboard with a fielder’s choice RBI before Crow could get out of the inning.
Davitt responded to the early grand slam by retiring the next seven batters he faced to keep Nashville from extending the lead while Crow allowed his second run to come across the plate after surrendering consecutive two-out hits in the bottom of the fifth including a RBI triple off the bat of Dru Baker.
Jeferson Quero finally did add to the Sounds lead when he connected on a 93 MPH fastball from Chase Plymell in the bottom of the fifth for his first home run of the season. The two-run shot pushed the advantage to 7-2 and scored Tyler Black, who beat out a potential inning-ending double play with his speed down the first base line to send Quero to the plate.
Charlotte clawed back into the game with a three-run top of the seventh off Nashville reliever Joe Corbett, who made his season debut when he took over for Crow to start the inning. Crow exited the game after spinning his first quality start since June 14 of last year, in his final start with Biloxi before being promoted to Nashville. The Knights earned five hits off Corbett in the inning, including a pair of doubles. Aggressive baserunning proved costly though with Darren Baker getting thrown out trying to steal home and helped keep the Sounds in front 7-5.
The Knights’ second triple of the game came off Peter Strzelecki to lead off the top of the eighth inning. Strzelecki nearly escaped without any damage done, but Jacob Gonzalez was able to score after a two-out walk and Dru Bakers’ third hit of the night cut the Nashville lead to just one. Will Childers took the mound in the top of the ninth for Nashville and retired the first two batters he faced. Dunn kept Charlotte’s hopes alive with a single before Childers slammed the door with a four-pitch strikeout of Gonzalez to secure his first save of the year and preserve the win for Nashville.
With at worst a series split in hand, Nashville’s first opportunity to take the series outright comes on Saturday night. LHP Tate Kuehner (1-0, 1.59 ERA) will take the ball for the Sounds against RHP Tanner McDougal (0-0, 2.25 ERA) and the Knights. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm CT.
