Mattison Belts Game-Ending HR As Sounds Walk Off Against Omaha

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kevin Mattison belted a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to power the Nashville Sounds to a walkoff 5-4 victory over the Omaha Storm Chasers on Monday evening at Greer Stadium in the opener of a four-game series.

Mattison's game-ending blast, his third big fly of the year, came against Ramon Troncoso and gave the first-place Sounds (24-20) their second last at-bat win of the year. The Nashville outfielder fouled off five consecutive 3-2 offerings from the Omaha right-hander before connecting on his walkoff shot.

By opening the game with a pair of scoreless frames, Brad Mills extended his scoreless streak to 18 1/3 innings, surpassing Brian Meadows (18.0 IP in 2003) for the longest such streak during the Sounds' PCL era (1998-present).

Omaha put an end to that streak in the third, however, by plating three runs to grab a 3-0 lead.

Left fielder Melky Mesa (2-for-3) led off the inning with a line drive solo homer to left, his third of the year, to put the visitors on the board. Brett Eibner followed by drawing a walk from Mills, was sacrificed to second, and scored to double the Omaha lead to 2-0 on newly-crowned PCL Batter of the Week Jimmy Paredes' RBI single to center. Later in the frame, Paulo Orlando singled to center with two outs to bring home Paredes.

The Sounds jumped onto the board in the bottom of the fourth against P.J. Walters. Hunter Morris singled with one out, moved to second on a Jeremy Hermida walk, and scored on Taylor Green's two-out single to center.

Nashville pulled into the lead with a three-run outburst in the sixth. Caleb Gindl drew a leadoff walk and hustled to third on Morris' single to right before scoring on a Walters wild pitch to make it a 3-2 contest. After Justin Marks took over on the Omaha hill, Matt Pagnozzi bunted the runners into scoring position before Green (2-for-4) delivered again for the Sounds, slapping an opposite-field, two-run double to left to give the home team a 4-3 advantage.

Omaha quickly tied it at 4-4 in the next half-inning as Mesa belted his second homer of the night, a two-out roundtripper to right that chased Mills from the contest.

Jeremy Jeffress (1-1), who followed Mills with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, picked up his first win of the year as the beneficiary of Mattison's heroics.

The teams continue the series with an 11:05 a.m. matinee on Tuesday morning. Right-hander Ariel Pena (2-3, 4.67) will make the start for the Sounds and face Omaha southpaw John Lamb (1-5, 4.97).