Kentrall Davis has shown some pop at the plate in his first two weeks with the Arkansas Travelers. On Saturday night, the Travs left-handed slugger showed he could adjust.
Davis hit a tie-breaking two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to send the Travelers to a 4-2 victory over the Frisco RoughRiders in front of 4,043 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
After being held to no runs and a combined six hits during their first two home games, the Travelers staged a comeback victory Saturday night. Wade Hinkle's sixth-inning blast tied the game at 2-2. Davis provided the game-winner two innings later to make a winner of Austin Wood (2-0).
Davis, a first-round draft pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2009, hit 22 home runs in two years at the University of Tennessee. His home run Saturday gave him three in nine games with the Travelers.
Batting against Frisco reliever Chris Bell in the sixth inning, Davis struck out on three pitches.
"I had a terrible at-bat," said Davis, who finished 2 for 4 and raised his batting average to .333. "He threw me a first-pitch strike and then I swung at two balls. ... I was thinking, 'Why am I swinging at balls that high?' In my second at-bat against him, I just wanted to swing at a strike and get a good pitch to drive."
What Davis got was a fastball that he sent over the right-center field wall, a shot that measured 413 feet.
Travelers starting pitcher Alan Busenitz scattered eight hits in his five innings of work, but the RoughRiders managed only two runs off him. Wood pitched 3 innings, allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk. Trevor Gott worked a perfect ninth inning to collect his second save.
Shut out through their first two home games, the Travelers ended a 20-inning scoreless streak in the first inning when Brian Hernandez lined a two-out double to the left-field corner that scored Cal Towey.
The Travelers did not collect another hit until the fourth inning and did not score again until the sixth, when Hinkle's first home run of the season -- a 395-foot blast -- landed beyond the right-field wall.
Frisco, which managed only six runs in the three-game series, scored both of its runs Saturday in the fourth inning. Back-to-back doubles by Royce Bollinger and Jake Skole tied the game at 1-1. Guilder Rodriquez lined a two-out single to give the RoughRiders a 2-1 advantage.
Frisco starter Jerad Eickhoff limited Arkansas to four hits in his five innings. He walked three and struck out seven.
The start of the game was delayed by 1:09 because of a rainstorm.
Sports on 04/19/2015