ROUND ROCK – The Round Rock Express won again in dramatic fashion as they defeat Nashville 7-5 Thursday night behind a walk-off home run by Mark Saccomanno.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Saccomano got all of a 1-1 pitch from Nashville reliever Wes Littleton sending it over the left field fence handing the Express a 7-5 win.
After dropping the opening game of their series to Nashville, Round Rock got busy with their bats again as they scored twice in the first inning to jump out to an early lead. Brian Bogusevic led off with a single and Tommy Manzella followed with a line drive double. John Gall then did what he has been doing all series long, driving in runs. His double drove in both first inning runs giving the Express a 2-0 lead.
Round Rock starter Yorman Bazardo surrenderd a run in the second inning when Joe Kashansky doubled to left field, and after moving to third on a Cole Gillespie single, raced home on a fielders choice.
Nashville starter Sam Narron found himself in trouble again in the third inning when Bogusevic lead of the inning with his 15th double of the season. Saccomanno later delivered a two-out RBI single to left helping the Express extend their lead to 4-1.
Bazardo then had some struggles of his own. Joe Koshansky took him deep in the fourth inning making it 4-2. Then Nashville strung together three straight doubles in the fifth inning to tie the game up at 4-4. Narron helped his own cause by hitting the first double with Jason Bourgeois and Alcides Escobar following with two-baggers of their own.
Round Rock regained the lead in the sixth when Lou Santangelo drew a walk and would later score. Nashville came back to tie the game up at 5-5 when Express reliever Sammy Gervacio found himself experiencing a rough inning. Gervacio hit a batter, issued a couple of walks, threw a wild pitch, and gave up a single to allow the Sounds the one run they needed to tie the game up at 5-5.
Chad Paronto and Wesley Wright help keep the Sounds bats silent as they both chipped in with relief work before Saccomanno drove his walk off shot over the left field fence in the bottom of the ninth giving the Express a 7-5 win.
Round Rock picked up 11 hits with Brian Bogusevic going 3-for-4. Bazardo struck out four in his six innings of work while giving up nine hits. Chad Paronto held down the Sounds in the ninth for his second win of the year.
Round Rock will be back in action Friday as they take on Nashville again with the first pitch being at 7:05 p.m. A spectacular fireworks show will immediately follow the game.
