Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds snapped a three-game slide and picked up their first win of the series with a 4-2 win on Friday night over the Charlotte Knights at First Horizon Park in front of a sellout crowd. Coleman Crow turned in another strong start on the mound, and the Sounds offense came up clutch in the bottom of the eighth inning with a pair of late runs.
Darrien Miller extended his on-base streak to 13 games with one of the two Sounds hits through the first five innings with a single in the second. Brewers no. 16-rated prospect Luke Adams recorded his first hit of the series to end a three-game hitless streak with a single in the fifth.
Despite just the two hits, the Sounds found themselves ahead 2-0 thanks to a bases-loaded walk in the fourth to take advantage of a leadoff walk for Akil Baddoo and a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth to score Brandon Lockridge who also drew one of the eight walks Nashville worked through five innings of play.
Crow fell an out shy of turning in his third straight quality start on the mound Friday night. The Brewers no. 25-rated prospect saw his no-hit bid end in the top of the sixth on a one-out double off the bat of Major League rehabber Austin Hays.
Two batters later, Ryan Galanie continued his tear against Nashville this season with his seventh home run in 15 games played and third in four games this week alone. They were the only two runs the Nashville right-hander allowed over 5.2 IP (3 H, 2 R, 6 K, 4 BB). Blake Holub took over on the mound and retired the first batter he faced on one pitch to keep the game knotted at 2-2.
Eduardo Garcia doubled in the bottom of the sixth but was the ninth Nashville runner stranded on base as the team was just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position after six. Holub was back out for the seventh and pitched around a leadoff single and one-out walk to strand two on base as the Knights were also held 1-for-7 with RISP, stranding 7 of their own.
Left-hander Drew Rom took over on the mound for Nashville in the eighth and plunked Galanie to start his outing. After seeing Galanie swipe second, Rom struck out Nolan Jones and was aided by the second highlight catch of the night for Lockridge in center field to keep the potential go-ahead run at second base.
Rom then struck out Korey Lee to push his streak without an earned run to 11.2 IP with Nashville dating back to June 3 with 18 strikeouts over the stretch.
The Nashville bats came to life in the bottom of the eighth, doubling their hit total for the game to take a two-run lead. Tyler Black started the inning with his first hit of the series. Miller then deposited a clutch RBI double into the right field corner for his second hit of the night to score Black easily from first.
Garcia followed suit with a single and his second hit and Lockridge cashed in with Miller standing on third with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2 and send Rom back to the mound. Following a leadoff single, the southpaw retired three straight to earn his second save of the season and add another inning to his no earned runs streak.
Nashville will look to make it two straight wins on Saturday night. RHP Garrett Stallings (3-3, 3.70 ERA) is slated to get the start for Nashville to begin the month of August.
