truebluefan

Suns' comeback seals Thursday victory at Tennessee

Sevierville, Tenn. - In a back and forth affair that featured four lead changes, the Jacksonville Suns scored five runs in two different innings to defeat the Tennessee Smokies Thursday night at Smokies Park by the score of 10-9.

Tennessee opened the scoring in the third inning off of Jacksonville starter Heath Totten as Danny Richar tripled home a run and Miguel Montero singled home Richar to make it a 2-0 Smokies lead.

Jacksonville tied the game in the fifth inning as an RBI walk from Adam Greenberg and a sacrifice fly from Chin-Lung Hu made it a 2-2 affair. With two on and two out, Tydus Meadows smashed an opposite field homerun to right-centerfield that opened a fifth inning 5-2 Jacksonville lead.

The Smokies began to chip away at the Suns lead in the bottom of the fifth as Jerry Gil and Miguel Montero drove home runs with singles to cut the Jacksonville advantage to 5-4. The Smokies completed the comeback in the sixth inning as Agustin Murillo singled home a run while later scoring on an error as Tennessee overtook the Suns by the score of 6-5.

In the sixth inning Tennessee leftfielder Mark Reynolds belted a three-run homerun to open up a 9-5 lead, his second homerun in as many days in Tennessee. Reynolds was promoted to Tennessee from High-A Lancaster (California League) after hitting 23 homeruns this season.

The Suns began their second comeback in the eighth inning as with one out, seven consecutive batters reached safely on singles, walks or hit by pitches. Justin Ruggiano contributed an RBI single while Adam Greenberg was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Chin-Lung Hu battled through an extremely long at-bat with foul balls and a full count with a cracked bat single and two RBI. Tydus Meadows then drove home another run with an opposite field single. After all of the offense, Jacksonville scored five runs on five hits and overtook Tennessee by the score of 10-9.

Jacksonville reliever Ben Kozlowski picked up the victory to improve to 1-0 while Tennessee reliever Bill White fell to 0-1 in the loss. Suns closer Mark Alexander saved his 21st game of the season.

Tennessee and Jacksonville continue the series with game three Friday with Suns LHP Scott Elbert facing Tennessee RHP Ross Ohlendorf. Fans can follow the action on AM 930 The Fox or online at jaxsuns.com or milb.com.