TL1 Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Bianchi's banner night ends with walkoff

Published on June 27, 2009 under Texas League (TL1)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals News Release


SPRINGDALE, AR- The Arvest Ballpark faithful waited over a season for the first walkoff homer in Naturals' history. They didn't even have to wait one month for the second one.

In his second home game with the Naturals shortstop Jeff Bianchi ripped a 2-2 pitch in the bottom of the tenth from Travs' reliever Marco Albano deep over the fence in left center-field to give Northwest Arkansas a 4-3 walkoff win over the Arkansas Travelers.

The Naturals' bats were the first to rise on Saturday evening with two runs in the bottom of the first. Bianchi's two-run double brought in Ed Lucas and Corey Smith to put the Naturals up 2-0.

Naturals' starter Dan Cortes managed to keep the Travelers off the board through five labor intensive innings. Cortes struggled with his control, throwing only 53 of his 100 pitches for strikes and needing help from his defense to work around five hits allowed and four walks. The Travs' had difficulties getting runners across from scoring position, stranding runners on in each of the five innings Cortes worked. He struck out three.

It looked as though the Travs would get a run across in the fourth. He issued a walk to Friday's hero, Val Majewski, to lead things off. Mark Trumbo then singled to right, moving Majewski to third. Majewski was then tagged out at home tagging up on a sacrifice fly attempt by Nate Sutton. Wil Ortiz then singled to put two runners on again, but Cortes managed to get Jay Caligiuri to fly out to center to end the threat. Consecutive two-out singles by the Travs in the fifth were also left stranded, part of the staggering 13 runners North Little Rock stranded on the basepaths.

The Travs chipped away at the Naturals lead in the seventh when Hainley Statia grounded into a double play to score Jay Caligiuri.

The two runs in the first were all that the Naturals would get against the Travs' young southpaw Trevor Reckling. He lasted 6 1/3 innings in a no-decision, yielding eight hits and a walk while fanning four. Reckling departed after he issued the walk to Chris McConnell with one out in the seventh in favor of reliever Bryan Rembisz. Rembisz managed to pick off McConnell but then allowed a single to Jose Duarte, who then stole second and later came home on a single to third by Kurt Mertins that helped the Naturals regain their two-run lead.

Hank Conger would erase that in the top of the ninth with a triple into right-center off of Naturals' reliever Chris Nicoll that scored Coby Smith and Peter Bourjos to knot the game at three apiece. Nicoll then walked Val Majewski, but he was erased on a pickoff. Southpaw Carlos Sencion was summoned from the ‘pen to face the left-handed hitting Nate Sutton. Sencion (2-1) fanned Sutton and blanked the Travelers in a scoreless tenth.

The top of the tenth was not without controversy, however, as Travelers' skipper Bobby Magallanes was ejected by Home Plate umpire Dan Oliver for arguing a called third strike against Peter Bourjos.

After Travelers reliever Marco Albano (1-2) fanned Ed Lucas and Corey Smith, Jeff Bianchi hit his walkoff home run that capped a 5-for-5 night. It was the second night in a row the Naturals and Travelers (2-2, 30-44) had played extra frames. Northwest Arkansas (2-1, 38-35) moves to 6-2 in extra inning contests.

The two teams continue the series with an afternoon matinee Sunday. Right-hander Anthony Lerew (4-4, 5.21) takes the hill for the Naturals against the southpaw Barret Browning (0-6, 4.08). First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 P.M.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. The Naturals have a toll-free ticket hotline (1-877-444-2637) for fans to purchase Naturals tickets. Our website, nwanaturals.com offers fans the opportunity to purchase tickets online and avoid lines at the ticket windows by printing their tickets at home or at the office.

Check out the Northwest Arkansas Naturals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Texas League Stories from June 27, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central