Travs top Cards 7-3
Published on June 14, 2009 under Texas League (TL1)
Arkansas Travelers News Release
NORTH LITTLE ROCK - After being swept in a tough five-game, three-day series at Northwest Arkansas, the Arkansas Travelers made themselves at home Sunday night with a big 7-3 win over division-leading Springfield at Dickey-Stephens Park. Tommy Mendoza pitched seven strong innings for the Travs to end a six-game losing ski and start an eight-game homestand off with a win.
Mendoza (W, 4-2) didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, when the Cardinals (34-27) scored all three of their runs. He stranded two runners in the sixth to prevent further damage, retired three of four batters in the seventh and handed the ball to the Traveler bullpen, which preserved the lead with two perfect innings of relief.
"Mendoza had great stuff today. He attacked the hitters in the zone. Even that one inning that they put up the crooked number, there was only one hard hit ball. Everything was off the end of the bat, went in right-center and the ball fell in. He was still making good pitches," Arkansas manager Bobby Magallanes said.
Bobby Cassevah put up zeroes across the board in the eighth, and Bobby Mosebach got a groundout and two strikeouts to end the game.
The Arkansas (24-27) offense, which only got six runs out of 16 hits last night against the Naturals, produced seven runs on 11 hits Sunday night against Springfield.
"Guys were ready to hit today. They knew with each pitch what they had to do in terms of executing, and they did it," Magallanes said.
Nate Sutton, getting his first career start in centerfield, doubled and scored on a passed ball in the first inning to start the Trav scoring. In the second, Wil Ortiz singled and Branden Florence reached on a catcher's interference, setting up a sacrifice fly by Jay Caligiuri and a two-out RBI-single by Kevin Ramos to give Arkansas a 3-0 lead. The Travelers doubled their lead in the fourth, with Caligiuri recording a 2-RBI double to left, scoring Ortiz and Florence, and then scoring on a Sutton one-out single.
Sutton and Hainley Statia combined to go 4-for-9 with two runs scored and an RBI out of the first two spots in the lineup while Arkansas was without its usual first one-two hitters, Peter Bourjos, on the DL with a wrist injury, and Coby Smith, given the day off.
"Coby Smith and Bourjos are table-setters and they've been doing the job all season, even while guys behind them haven't been driving them in. But today we had guys on base and we were driving them in," Magallanes said. "If we can get something going after tonight and keep it going, then those two guys at the top of the lineup will be difference-makers."
Florence, batting seventh, went 2-for-2 with two runs scored. Caligiuri had three RBIs out of the eight-hole.
In his Double-A debut, Springfield righty Brian Broderick (L, 0-1) gave up nine hits and six runs (four earned) in six innings. Arkansas tacked on another run in the seventh Val Majewski drove in Statia on a single off reliever Tyler Norrick. Eddie Degerman pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Cardinals.
All of Springfield's hits and runs came in the sixth inning, starting with a leadoff ground-rule double by Antonio DeJesus. Daryl Jones knocked in DeJesus with a single, and then Pete Kozma singled to set up an RBI-single by Daniel Descalso, scoring Jones. Kozma scored on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Henley.
Sunday's attendance was 5,088. The series opener lasted 2:32.
Trevor Bell (4-3, 2.23 ERA) gets the start Monday in the second of four games with Springfield, who will send lefthander Brad Furnish (2-1, 7.34) to the mound.
Texas League Stories from June 14, 2009
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- Tulsa Blanks Naturals Sunday - Northwest Arkansas Naturals
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