NASHVILLE, TENN. — The Omaha Storm Chasers lost in walk-off fashion against the Nashville Sounds Wednesday night, falling 6-5 in 10 innings at First Horizon Park.
Omaha continued its hot offense early in game two of the series, as second baseman Michael Massey crushed a two-run shot to right field in the top of the first inning to score Drew Waters and give the Chasers a 2-0 lead.
Nick Pratto followed with his third home run of the season in the top of the second inning, his third home run in as many games, which extended the Omaha lead to 3-0.
Slowly, Nashville began to chip away at the Omaha. In the bottom of the third, Andruw Monasterio hit a sacrifice fly to get the Sounds on the board and trim the Storm Chaser lead to 3-1. After opening the bottom of the fourth with a single, Brewer Hicklen stole third base, then scored on a throwing error by Omaha catcher Brian O’Keefe to bring Nashville within one, 3-2.
Omaha starter Daniel Lynch IV worked into the fifth inning but could not finish the frame, as he surrendered three more runs to the Sounds on fivehits and a sacrifice fly to put Nashville up 5-3.
Steven Cruz worked out of trouble behind Lynch and stranded an inherited runner on, pitching into the seventh inning with 2.0 scoreless frames of relief with two strikeouts. John McMillon took over for Cruz in the seventh and offered 1.1 scoreless innings of relief, with one strikeout to keep Omaha within two through the end of the eighth.
After scoring in the early innings, the Storm Chasers were held scoreless in the next five innings as the offense produced just three singles and a walk. Down the the game’s final three outs in the ninth, Omaha came alive with a surge at the plate against Nashville’s closer to tie the game, scoring two runs on four singles. John Rave singled in Devin Mann, then scored the game-tying run himself on a two-out RBI single from Nate Eaton that tied the score at 5-5 to force extras.
Sam Long took over for McMillon and fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth inning to force the game into extra innings. Mann drew a walk and Omaha had two runners on in the top of the 10th inning, but the Chasers could not take a lead despite opening with a runner on second base.
While Long struck out the first batter he faced in the 10th, a single and intentional walk loaded the bases for Isaac Collins, who drilled a game-winning single to the warning track, with the Storm Chasers falling 6-5 to snap the club’s 3-game winning streak.
The Storm Chasers continue this six-game series against the Sounds Thursday at First Horizon Park with a 6:35 p.m. CT first pitch as right-handed pitcher Luis Cessa is slated to start for Omaha.
