Naturals’ Moon up to the task

NW Arkansas back on top of TL North

The two teams trading away first place in the Texas League North Division let chances pass regularly Sunday night.

Today’s game

ARKANSAS VS. NW ARKANSAS

WHEN 7:10 p.m.

WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock

RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in central Arkansas; KQSM-FM, 92.1, in Northwest Arkansas

WEBSITE travs.com; nwanaturals.com TICKETS Gates open 1 hour before first pitch. Box $13, reserved $9 ($6 children), general admission $7 ($5 children)

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals let potential runs go unscored in the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings. The Arkansas Travelers, trying to hold a half-game lead at the top of the standings, scratched a run in the first, but failed to add more in that inning and then in the sixth.

Then, Logan Moon, an outfielder enjoying an upand-down first Class AA season, came up with the game’s biggest hits from the bottom of the order. He tripled in the eighth off Arkansas starter Jordan Kipper and scored to force extra innings. He then doubled in the 10th and scored on a Mauricio Ramos single to give the Naturals a 2-1 victory at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

The victory put the Naturals back in first place in the North Division second-half standings by a half-game, with four games remaining between the teams over the season’s final week.

“It showed a lot by our team tonight,” said Moon, a former Central Arkansas player. “It didn’t seem like any inning we went out there and threw at bats away. That was a tough playoff-type game, so it’s good for our morale.”

NATURALS 2, TRAVELERS 1 (10)

Despite the lack of runs, Naturals Manager Vance Wilson wasn’t annoyed either. He knew Kipper had been one of the Texas League’s best starters, with particular success against the Naturals. Kipper was going for his 13th victory, which would have tied him for the league lead, and in three starts against the Naturals had compiled a 0.96 ERA with two victories.

Wilson waited patiently for the Naturals’ moment even as they let 10 chances with runners in scoring position go by without a hit.

“I’d be ignorant to say I was frustrated, because that guy knows how to pitch even though he’s not a power arm,” Wilson said.

It came in the eighth when Moon tripled to right-center field and scored on Alfredo Escalera’s sacrifice fly. Despite the run, Travs Manager Mark Parent said he wasn’t second guessing a decision to let Kipper start the eighth, a point in the game he had reached just two times this season. Kipper’s pitch count was low at 83 pitches entering the inning, and Parent thought he deserved the chance to protect his lead.

“I wasn’t about to let somebody else mess his game up until the ninth,” Parent said.

The Naturals needed to get to the bottom of the order to pounce again. Moon doubled down the left-field line off Eduardo Perez, then scored on Ramos’ single.

“We need him and we need that bat,” Wilson said of Moon, who is hitting .259 on the season but .316 in August.

The Travs went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, which cost them a chance to build their lead in the division race to 1½ games.

David Fletcher gave them a lead in the first when he reached on an infield single, moved to third on Alex Yarbrough’s single and then scored on Andrew Daniel’s sacrifice fly. But the Travs failed to build on the lead by leaving runners on first and third in the sixth, and on first and second in the ninth and 10th innings.

“It’s the little things,” Parent said. “It’s just a matter of getting the guy in.”

The teams close a three-game series tonight and start a threegame series to close the season Saturday in Springdale. Both managers expect the race to take every game available on the schedule, given the teams’ similarities — each struggling to take advantage of scoring opportunities, and the strengths in their bullpens.

“We pitch and catch the ball well, both teams,” Wilson said. “They’re fun, it gets exhausting at times. But, it’s probably going to come down to that last series with the two teams.”

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