Jacksonville stuns first-place Nashville with 6-2 series-opening win
Jared Serna drove in three and Gage Miller added two RBIs as Jacksonville turned a tied game into a 6-2 win over first-place Nashville.
Jacksonville did more than open its homestand with a win. It knocked off first-place Nashville and turned the first game of a six-game set into an early standings test, using a four-run burst over the middle innings to beat the Sounds 6-2 at VyStar Ballpark on Tuesday night.
Jared Serna was the spark from the bottom of the lineup, driving in three runs as Jacksonville scored twice in the second, twice in the fourth and twice in the fifth. Serna put the Jumbo Shrimp on top with a two-run single in the second, then came back with an RBI double in the fourth as the lead widened. Deyvison De Los Santos added an RBI single in that same inning, and Gage Miller capped the rally with a two-run single in the fifth to make it 6-2.
That fifth-inning push mattered because Nashville had already shown some fight. The Sounds tied the game in the fourth on Tyler Black’s bases-loaded walk after a two-out rally, but Kaleb Bowman could not finish the inning cleanly and took the loss after allowing the two go-ahead runs. Jacksonsville never let the game tilt back after that. Jack Ralston earned the win with 2.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen, and Amos Willingham handled the finish with the save.
The result carried extra weight because Nashville arrived in Jacksonville as the top team in the International League, giving the Jumbo Shrimp a measuring-stick chance in the opening game of a week that could shape the tone of the series. Nashville was held hitless over the final five innings, and Jacksonville’s pitching and defense kept the Sounds from creating another late escape as the game moved past the fourth-inning swing.
The win pushed Jacksonville to 33-25 and dropped Nashville to 35-23. It also came on Lou Gehrig Day at VyStar Ballpark, with 3,416 on hand and first pitch at 7:26 p.m., a backdrop that fit a night built around execution rather than flash.
For Jacksonville, the broader signal was just as important as the final score. The Jumbo Shrimp entered 2026 as the defending International League champions and Triple-A National champions, and this was the kind of home result that reinforces that standard. Serna, born June 1, 2002, in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, delivered the most productive night. Miller, a 2024 third-round pick by the Marlins out of Alabama, supplied the hit that put the game away.
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