TEXAS LEAGUE

Binford in command from start

Arkansas Travelers designated hitter Michael Bianucci finished with one hit, a ninth-inning leadoff home run, against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale on Monday.
Arkansas Travelers designated hitter Michael Bianucci finished with one hit, a ninth-inning leadoff home run, against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale on Monday.

SPRINGDALE -- Christian Binford was sharp in his fourth Class AA start and Northwest Arkansas battery mate Micah Gibbs hit two run-scoring doubles as the Naturals opened a seven-game homestand with a 6-3 victory over Arkansas on Monday night.

Jorge Bonifacio added three hits for the Naturals and former major-leaguer Mitch Maier had two hits and two runs in his season debut following back surgery in front of a crowd of 4,839 at Arvest Ballpark.

Northwest Arkansas (15-15) pulled within a game of the Travelers (16-15) at the top of the Texas League North and trimmed its deficit in the season series to 9-8.

"This game is all about momentum and for us to get a win against them, a team we're kind of fighting at right now in the standings, is huge," said Gibbs, who went 2 for 3 with RBI doubles in the second and eighth innings.

Binford (2-1) gave up 1 earned run on 6 hits in his 7 innings, outdueling Travelers starter Michael Roth.

"His command is something special," Gibbs said. "Two-seamer, four-seam fastball, slider, back-door slider, everything he threw was pin-point control tonight."

Northwest Arkansas Manager Vance Wilson said Binford settled down after leaving a few pitches up early, including a home run ball to Jett Bandy.

"He's very deceptive, and that's a team that has some older guys that can really pop the ball," Wilson said. "For him to keep them off balance, throw all his pitches, finishing pitches, first-pitch strikes, I mean, he did everything you want your pitcher to do."

Northwest Arkansas' nine-hole hitter Ethan Chapman broke a 1-1 tie with a bases-loaded bloop over the second base bag to score two runs and put the Naturals in front for good in the fourth.

"Chapman's was the big one, obviously, with the bases loaded," Wilson said. "There's no such thing as a bad hit. He stuck the bat out there off obviously a tough lefty just enough to get it over the infield.

"The biggest thing is we've had some trouble adding runs on at the end and we are able to do that tonight."

The early scoring was fueled by extra-base hits from the opposing catchers.

Bandy laid into a Binford offering in the second inning and sent a two-out shot high over the wall in left field for a 1-0 lead.

The Naturals wasted no time getting even, scoring a run in the bottom of the inning off Roth, who entered the night with the Texas League's second-best ERA among qualifiers.

Left fielder Edinson Rincon hit a two-out single to start the rally. Gibbs followed with a hard-hit double to the fence in right-center field to make it 1-1.

The score remained tied until the fourth. Hunter Dozier hit a one-out single to left field and advanced to second on Maier's perfectly placed bunt down the third-base line.

After Rincon lined out to second, Roth (8-6) had a chance to escape the inning with no damage but walked Gibbs, then Chapman flared his Texas Leaguer to shallow center to drive in two runs.

Shaky defense from the Naturals led to an unearned run in the fifth inning.

Dozier threw high to first base on Andrew Heid's grounder to open the inning. Binford walked leadoff hitter Maikol Gonzalez with one out, then Alex Yarbrough sent a scorcher to first base that deflected off Cheslor Cuthbert's glove and into right field, allowing Heid to score and cut the Travelers' deficit to 3-2.

Northwest Arkansas padded its lead on Roth and Daniel Reynolds in the seventh inning. Angel Franco singled with one out and stole second with two outs. Reynolds came on to face Bonifacio, who singled to bring in the run. Cuthbert followed with a big shot to the right-field corner that caromed off the wall and made it 5-2.

Maier doubled to lead off the bottom of the eighth and came in on the second run-scoring double by Gibbs, the former LSU catcher.

Travelers designated hitter Michael Bianucci led off the ninth with a home run just inside the left-field foul pole off Andrew Triggs to provide the final margin.

Sports on 07/22/2014

Upcoming Events