Omaha Royals Slip Past Nashville Sounds 6-5 - AAA, Pacific Coast League

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - NASHVILLE – Laynce Nix homered for the second straight contest but his three-run shot wasn’t enough to lift the Sounds to victory as Nashville dropped a 6-5 decision to the Omaha Royals on Thursday evening at Greer Stadium.

Shane Costa paced the Omaha offense by going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs and finishing a triple short of the cycle.

Omaha took a 3-0 lead against Sounds starter Lindsay Gulin in the top of the second inning. Chris Lubanski got things started with a run-scoring seeing-eye grounder through the right side of the infield to plate Brian Buchanan, who had opened the frame with a walk. Costa and Mike Aviles added RBI single later in the frame to up the advantage to three.

The Royals upped the lead to 4-0 in the third on Matt Tupman’s two-out RBI double that scored Angel Berroa, who preceded him with a single.

Costa made it a 5-0 Omaha advantage in the fourth when he led off the frame with a solo homer to right-center off Gulin, the outfielder’s second longball of the year.


ADVERTISEMENT The Sounds got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Vinny Rottino and Russell Branyan ripped back-to-back doubles against Omaha starter Tyler Lumsden, making it a 5-1 contest. Branyan’s two-bagger was his team-leading seventh of the year and pushed the veteran’s hitting streak to six games.

Nix (2-for-4) pulled the home team within a run at 5-4 in the fifth with a mammoth two-out, three-run homer to right off Lumsden, his third roundtripper of the year and second in as many nights. Steve Sollmann and Abraham Nunez, who had both singled earlier in the frame, scored on the blast. The home run extended Nix’s hit streak to a season-best five games.

Omaha third baseman Jason Smith provided an insurance run in the seventh with a solo homer to left off Sounds reliever Jason Shiell, his fifth jack of the year and second in as many games. Nashville answered that run in the bottom of the frame when Adam Heether scored on an Ozzie Chavez sacrifice fly.

Lumsden (1-1) earned his first win in four career starts against Nashville despite surrendering four runs in his five innings of work. Jeff Fulchino worked the final two innings in scoreless fashion to notch his first save of the year.

Gulin (0-2) took the loss after he allowed five runs on nine hits over his five frames of action.

The teams wrap up the series with a 7 p.m. meeting on Friday evening. Right-hander Nic Ungs (1-1, 3.72) will man the bump for the Sounds to face Omaha right-hander Matt Wright (0-0, 5.40).

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