Louisville, KY – Although scoring in each of the first six innings, the Nashville Sounds (11-11) lost 14-9 in the first game of the series to the Louisville Bats (10-12) on Tuesday night at Louisville Slugger Field.
The extra-base machine Tyler Black reached base four times and blasted a two-run home run to the right field. In his last six games, Black has three home runs, two triples, and 10 RBI.
The Sounds got on the board early when Francisco Mejía scored from third from an error on a pickoff attempt to first base. Louisville scored in the bottom half, but the Sounds took the lead once again with an Isaac Collins solo home run in the second inning.
Down 6-2 after the second inning, the Sounds battled back with a run in the third, fourth, fifth and two runs in the sixth. A pair of RBI singles by Brewer Hicklen and Yonny Hernández cut Louisville’s lead to 6-4. Hernández scored on a balk in the fifth and Black had a two-run home run in the sixth, but the Sounds still trailed 8-7. Nashville had multi-hit games from Black, Hernández, Brewer Hicklen and Chavez Young.
Carlos Rodriguez (0-4) struggled in his fourth start of the season allowing seven earned runs across 4.0 innings. The Sounds were within striking distance until the bottom of the seventh when the Bats added six runs to seal the game.
The Sounds added two runs in the eighth inning with RBI singles from Mejía and Noah Campbell with the latter playing in his first game for Nashville this season.
Position player turned pitcher; Nick Kahle worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth. Kahle has retired all six batters he has faced this season on 18 total pitches.
The Sounds take on the Bats in game two of the six-game series tomorrow morning. Left-hander Robert Gasser will make his first start of the season. He will go up against right-hander Lyon Richardson (0-0, 4.26). First pitch is set for 10:05am tomorrow at Louisville Slugger Field.
Post-Game Notes
- Tyler Black hit a home run in back-to-back games for the first time since April 16th-18th, 2023, while playing for Double-A Biloxi. Black scored three times, which tied his career high, which he had accomplished twice previously, the last occurring on May 21st, 2023, at Chattanooga.
- Brewer Hicklen was 2-for-2 with his 12th stolen base of the season. At the time of this publication, Hicklen leads the International League in stolen bases.
- Noah Campbell had an RBI single in his first game for Nashville this season. In 14 games this season for Double-A Biloxi, Campbell hit .324 (12-for-37) with two doubles, two triples and a .479 on-base percentage.
The Nashville Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers and play at First Horizon Park. Single-game tickets and season ticket memberships for the remainder of the 2024 season are on sale now.
For more information, call 615.690.4487 or e-mail tickets@nashvillesounds.com.
