Sounds overcome a 5-0 deficit, top Tides on walk-off HR in 11th

Alex Jackson hit a walk-off three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning Tuesday night, helping the Nashville Sounds overcome a 5-0 deficit to down the Norfolk Tides 8-5 before 6,007 fans at First Horizon Park in Tennessee.

The Tides (7-2) saw their fourgame win streak come to an end and they dropped into a firstplace tie in the International League with the Iowa Cubs, who beat Omaha 9-6 on Tuesday.

It looked like Norfolk would continue its winning ways when it scored four runs in the top of the first inning. Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg opened with singles and Kyle Stowers walked in his first Tides at-bat of the season to load the bases. Joey Ortiz followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 and Ryan O’Hearn hit a three-run homer off Nashville starter Caleb Boushley, who didn’t make it out of the inning. It was O’Hearn’s fourth homer of the season, which ties him for the team lead.

The Tides added another run in the second on Ortiz’s RBI triple. Cowser scored after leading off with a double.

From there, though, Norfolk’s bats went silent and Tides hitters ended up striking out 14 times.

Starting pitcher Drew Rom kept the Sounds (6-4) at bay, tossing six scoreless innings and allowing only three hits. He struck out four and walked one while lowering his ERA to 2.45.

Nashville broke through against the Tides’ bullpen. The Sounds scored three runs off reliever Reed Garrett in the seventh on Jon Singleton’s solo homer and Tyler Naquin’s 461-foot two-run shot. Naquin has played 557 MLB games.

The Sounds tied it at 5 in the eighth on Keston Hiura’s two-run homer off Eduard Bazardo. Hiura has played in 284 MLB games.

Hiura started the bottom of the 11th inning as the courtesy runner on second base. After Singleton struck out, Abraham Toro singled to right to put runners at the corners. Jackson’s homer came on a 1-2 pitch from Tides reliever Darwinzon Hernández (0-1).

Nashville reliever Clayton Andrews (1-0) picked up the victory by pitching a scoreless top of the 11th.

Cowser, Westburg, O’Hearn and Josh Lester finished with two hits apiece.

The teams played again Wednesday night and are scheduled to play 7:35 p.m. games through Saturday before wrapping up the series Sunday with a 3:05 p.m. game.