Colorado Springs Sky Sox at Nashville Sounds


April 8th, 2004

Sox
Name POS AB R H RBI
Clint Barmes SS 5 0 2 0
Elvis Pena 2B 4 0 1 0
Garrett Atkins 3B 4 1 1 0
Andy Tracy 1B 1 1 1 1
Matt Holliday LF 3 1 0 0
Brad Hawpe RF 4 1 1 2
Choo Freeman CF 4 1 0 0
J.D. Closser C 4 1 2 1
Jason Young P 3 0 1 0
Chris Donnels PH 1 0 0 0
Sounds
Name POS AB R H RBI
Tony Alvarez LF 5 0 2 0
Terry Shumpert 2B 5 1 1 1
Andy Abad RF 3 0 1 0
Ruben Mateo CF 4 0 0 0
Carlos Rivera 1B 3 2 1 1
Chris Truby 3B 4 0 1 1
Tomas DeLaRosa SS 2 0 1 0
Keith McDonald C 4 0 1 0
Nelson Figueroa P 2 0 0 0
J.R. House PH 1 0 0 0
Luke Allen PH 1 0 1 0

Colorado Springs 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 1 6 9 0
Nashville 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 9 1

E-DeLaRosa, LOB CS-5, NAS-8, 2B-Barmes, Tracy, Closser, Truby, HR-Hawpe (Figueroa/6th/solo), Shumpert (Young/3rd/solo), Rivera (Young/2nd/solo), HBP-Rivera, SACB-Pena, CS-Alvarez

Sox
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Jason Young 5 6 2 2 3 2 W (1-0)
Travis Driskill 1 1 0 0 0 3 ND
Jason Gilfillan 1 1 0 0 0 0 ND
Tim Harikkala 1 1 0 0 0 0 ND

Sounds
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Nelson Figueroa 6 6 5 3 3 4 L (0-1)
Chris Fussell 1 1 0 0 0 0 ND
Hector Almonte 2 2 1 1 1 3 ND

WP-Figueroa, HB-Rivera (Gilfillan), BK-Gilfillan, Almonte
T-2:39, A-7,664

The Tennessean
by Maurice Patton

An impressive Greer Stadium crowd of 7,664 went home disappointed last night as the Nashville Sounds fell to visiting Colorado Springs 6-3 in the Pacific Coast League season opener for both teams.

"I don't think you envision losing on opening day," said Nelson Figueroa, who got the starting pitching assignment for the home team and took the loss. "Maybe if I'd executed better, we'd have had a better result."

Nashville, which won it's first eight games and 14 of it's first 15 enroute to last year's PCL championship series, lost despite solo home runs by Carlos Rivers in the second inning and Terry Shumpert in the third off Sky Sox starter Jason Young.

Colorado Springs rallied from the 2-0 deficit with four fourth inning runs off Figueroa. RBI doubles by Andy Tracy and J.D. Closser and a two out error by shortstop Tomas DeLaRosa keyed the rally.

"After the second run scored, I kinda let myself down." said Figueroa, alluding to the DeLaRosa play on which Matt Holliday scored. The error allowed Closser to come to the plate and drive in Choo Freeman for a 4-2 lead.

"I thought I'd gotten the third out," Figueroa said, "I let up, I didn't bear down. As much experience as I've got in those situations, I've got to do better than that. I can't fault the defense, they're going to be there for me more than they're not. I've got to dig down within myself and hold them there and not give up that extra run."

Leading by two runs, the visitors picked up another run in the sixth when Brad Hawpe hammered a solo shot over the batter's eye in centerfield against Figueroa.

Trailing 5-2 in the eighth, Rivera reached base when he was hit by a Jason Gilfillan pitch and scored on Chris Truby's double down the left field line. Colorado Springs got the run back in the top of the ninth when Hector Almonte's two out balk scored Closser.

"I felt good down two runs," Nashville Manager Trent Jewett said, "Down the third run, you don't feel as good. Truby got the big hit, and I thought DeLaRosa's hit was though but the pitcher Gilfillan made a play on it.

"They executed in almost every area."

With the loss, the Sounds fell to 18-9 in Greer Stadium season opener and 13-14 in all time season openers.