Naturals Shutout Travs Behind Avila Gem
May 18, 2024 - Texas League (TL)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals News Release
Luinder Avila tossed his first quality start of the season, lifting the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (17-16) to a 3-0 shutout win over the Arkansas Travelers (20-16) on Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park.
In the top of the second, the Naturals scored the first run of the game against Travelers starter Logan Evans . Dillan Shrum and Diego Hernandez worked back-to-back walks, and moved up into third and second on a sacrifice bunt by *Joe Gray Jr. Leonel Valera* lined a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Shrum to make it 1-0.
Shrum extended the lead off Evans in the top of the sixth with a solo homer, making it a 2-0 ballgame.
In the top of the the ninth, Hernandez doubled and came around to score on a single by Javier Vaz to put Northwest Arkansas up 3-0. Anderson Paulino closed it down in the ninth, securing the shutout win.
Avila (2-3) recorded the win, letting up a hit, walking two, and striking out one over 6.0 scoreless innings. Evans (3-2) took the loss, allowing two runs on four hits, two walks, and six strikeouts over 5.2 frames. Paulino (5) notched the save, letting up a hit and striking out two in a shutdown ninth.
The Naturals and Travelers play the penultimate of a six-game series on Saturday with first pitch set for 6:05 PM CT. Northwest Arkansas is set to start RHP Will Fleming (0-0, 0.00), while Arkansas will go with RHP Jimmy Joyce (0-1, 21.60).
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