Charlotte, NC – The Nashville Sounds gave themselves complete command of the series in Charlotte with a 5-4 on Thursday night to take a three-game series lead over the Knights. Carlos Rodriguez pitched four-plus innings for the Sounds and struck out seven for the third time in his four starts.
The Sounds jumped out to a 5-0 lead with a run in each of the first five innings. Ernesto Martinez Jr. struck first with a RBI double to score Jared Oliva who kept the inning alive with a two-out triple. Wes Clarke hit a home run on the first pitch of the second inning and Oliva followed suit with his fourth home run of the year in the third inning to make it back-to-back games with a home run. Daz Cameron and Raynel Delgado collected the final two RBI of the night on sacrifice flies.
The Knights scored their first two runs off Rodriguez in the bottom of the fifth. Three of the four hits allowed by the Brewers’ no. 22-ranked prospect came in the inning, including a pair of doubles before Easton McGee came on in relief. He struck out the first batter he faced to get out of the inning. McGee worked the sixth inning for the Sounds and saw another run come across on two hits.
Vinny Nittoli pitched the seventh for Nashville. A pair of two-out singles and a walk in between cut the Sounds lead to 5-4. Nittoli struck out his second batter of the inning to prevent any further damage from being done.
Southpaw Tyler Jay was tasked with the final two innings for the Sounds. He worked around a two-out single by getting his lone strikeout of his outing to end the eighth and pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to collect his first save of the season.
After scoring their fifth run of the night, the Sounds were limited to just one hit and had four total baserunners over the final four innings.
