MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Express even series with Sounds
Mike Rodriguez' RBI double in ninth gives Round Rock 4-3 victory.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN CORRESPONDENT
Saturday, September 09, 2006
ROUND ROCK — Eric Munson sat on the Express bench for 4 hours and 11 minutes Friday night, including a 51-minute rain delay during Game 3 of Round Rock's playoff series against the Nashville Sounds.
He finally had his chance to play in the 10th inning, when he was called upon to pinch hit, and he came through with an RBI single that gave the Express a 6-5 victory.
Robert Backman
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Round Rock's J.R. House slides safely into home during the first inning of the Express' 6-5 victory in Game 3 of their playoff series with Nashville. Game 4 is today at Dell Diamond.
The Express took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Pacific Coast League series, and Round Rock can close out the Sounds with a victory this afternoon at Dell Diamond.
"If you lose a game like that with the rain delay, it can really take the momentum away," Munson said. "It was good to get that win."
Catcher Hector Gimenez doubled twice, homered and drove in four runs for Round Rock.
Matt Albers, who rejoined the Express' pitching rotation on Friday after being sent down from the Houston Astros, limited Nashville to three hits in six innings. He was in line to get his first Triple-A postseason victory until the Sounds — down 5-0 at one point — tied the game in the eighth inning, when Graham Koonce hit a three-run homer.
The Sounds loaded the bases with one out in the 10th, but reliever Travis Driskill struck out the last two batters he faced.
"Travis did a great job getting out of the jam," Express manager Jackie Moore said.
Nashville reliever Allan Simpson was one out away from giving his team another chance to bat in the 11th, but he hit both Cody Ransom and Jesse Garcia with pitches, giving Munson the opportunity to be the hero.
With runners on the corners in the bottom of the first inning, Gimenez looped a two-out routine pop fly into center field.
Nashville's Tony Gwynn, one of the most sure-handed outfielders in the PCL, never gave himself a chance to make a play on the ball, though, as he lost sight of it in the overcast evening sky. That allowed Mike Rodriguez and J.R. House to score on the hit.
It was a difficult night for Gwynn. In the third inning, he was tagged out by Gimenez on an attempted steal of home.
In the bottom of the third, Gimenez lined a two-out RBI double to center field to make the score 3-0. Gimenez, who also hit a solo home run in the fifth, raised his postseason batting average to .500.
Round Rock tacked on another run in the fourth inning, when Ransom scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Rodriguez.
Drew Anderson began Nashville's rally in the sixth with a solo homer to right. Chad Moeller added another run in the seventh when he hit an RBI double off of reliever Jailen Peguero.
PCL playoffs
ROUND ROCK
VS. NASHVILLE
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