Nashville, TN – Jordyn Adams sealed the Nashville Sounds’ Thursday night victory with a game-ending double play from right field and robbed the I-Cubs of any late-inning magic in the 6-5 win at First Horizon Park. The outfielder tipped what appeared to be a three-run home run off the bat of Justin Dean into his own glove on the way down before doubling off Christian Bethancourt trying to return to first base.
The Sounds struck first with a RBI for Ethan Murray after Jeferson Quero and Greg Jones drew two of the 11 walks issued by Iowa to start the inning. Nashville played small ball to move the runners into scoring position for Murray to capitalize on the RBI chance with a productive groundout. The I-Cubs took their first lead in the next half inning with two runs on four of the eight hits allowed by right-hander Carlos Rodriguez, who piggy-backed off a three-up, three-down one-inning start for rehabbing Rob Zastryzny.
Tyler Black quickly evened the score at two a piece and extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a RBI double in the home half of the third. Following a quiet fourth inning, Iowa jumped back out to a 2-run lead with three more hits off Rodriguez, who exited after 3.1 IP. Kaleb Bowman inherited a bases-loaded situation and walked the first man he faced before striking out Dean and inducing a groundout to escape the inning without any further damage done. Bowman worked two full scoreless innings of relief after and struck out a season-high five batters.
Quero started Nashville’s comeback with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to one run. Jett Williams doubled in the sixth for his second extra-base hit of the night after hitting a triple in the fourth and came around to tie the game on a RBI single for Cooper Pratt to tie the game at 4-4. Black worked his way around the bases in the home half of the seventh to put Nashville back in front.
After drawing a walk, Black advanced to second on an errant throw trying to double him off first after a lineout and then stole third before a throw from Bethancourt ended up in left field and allowed Black to make his way home. In the eighth, Williams reached on a fielder’s choice, and Pratt collected his second hit with a double before Iowa gave Luis Lara an intentional free pass to first base for his fourth walk of the game to load the bases. Brock Wilken recorded his 25th RBI of the season with a sac fly to give Nashville a run in four straight innings and build a 6-4 lead.
Right-handers Junior Fernandez and Reiss Knehr tag-teamed the final two innings on the mound for Nashville. Fernadez struck out one, walked one, and allowed a hit as he stranded two for his second hold of the season in the top of the eighth. Knehr allowed two straight singles to start the top of the ninth but got Scott Kingery to fly out to right field for the first out and advance one runner to third. That set the stage for Adams to rob Dean of a go-ahead three-run home run and end the game with his highlight-reel finish.
The Nashville Sounds has secured at worst a series split with wins in each of the first three games and is working on a four-game winning streak heading into the weekend portion of the series. Left-hander Tate Kuehner (1-2, 5.50 ERA) is scheduled to get the start for Nashville on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm CT.
