Sogard's slam sinks Travelers

LITTLE ROCK — San Antonio Missions second baseman Eric Sogard can now say he's hit a rare home run off Arkansas Travelers lefthander Trevor Reckling.

Sogard's seventh-inning grand slam to right field off Reckling led the Missions to a 6-4 victory over the Travelers before 3,817 Monday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

Reckling entered Monday with a 2.69 ERA, second-best among Texas League starters. He had not given up a home run since July 18 and had given up just three all season.

San Antonio won two games in the three-game series with Arkansas. The Travelers went 3-3 in their homestand.

"You take 3-3, you're still .500 for the homestand," Arkansas Manager Bobby Magallanes said. "But yet we've still got to keep gaining ground."

Arkansas set the pace early, going up 2-1 in the bottom of the first on a two-run home run by Nate Sutton. It was the second home run of the season for Sutton, who made a fielding error and a throwing error on the same play in the top of the first.

The Travelers made it 3-1 in the second on an RBI single by Hainley Statia, then went up 4-1 in the third when Sutton scored off a sacrifice fly to deep right field by Hank Conger.

Though he gave up a run in the sixth, Reckling stayed in command until the seventh inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Lance Zawadzki and a one out single to Mitch Canham before walking Jesus Lopez to load the bases.

Then came Sogard, who only had five home runs this season entering the at-bat, but was the player Manager Terry Kennedy wanted hitting in that situation.

"He has the best knowledge of the zone of anybody I got," Kennedy said. "I gave him the green light. He's the one guy I can count on to sort it out and make sure there's a pitch to hit for a sacrifice fly."

Sogard, who was thinking along similar lines, did a lot better than a sacrifice fly.

"I was trying to hit it hard in the outfield," Sogard said. "I figured if I put it in the outfield, I could at least get the sac fly. I was sitting on a fastball right there, and if it was in the zone, I was going to take a good hack at it."

For the second consecutive night, San Antonio's bullpen kept Arkansas from coming back, with three Missions relievers holding the Travelers to two hits over the last four innings.

"We had a lead going into the seventh inning, and we couldn't put it away," Magallanes said.