The Arkansas Travelers couldn't break through with a winning hit Friday night, but they gladly accepted the help of Tulsa Drillers reliever Kyle Hooper.
With runners on second and third base with one out in the bottom of the 14th inning, Hooper's first pitch in an effort to intentionally walk Anthony Phillips was low and outside and skipped to the backstop, allowing Jose Briceno to score for a 4-3 Travs victory at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Today’s game
ARKANSAS AT NW ARKANSAS
WHEN 2:05 p.m.
WHERE Arvest Ballpark, Springdale
RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in central Arkansas; KQSM-FM, 92.1, in NW Arkansas
WEBSITE travs.com, nwanaturals.com
PITCHERS Travelers: Tyler Carpenter (RHP, 2-3, 4.26 ERA); Naturals: Ashton Goudeau (RHP, 3-6, 3.51)
TICKETS Gates open 1 hour before first pitch. Box $13, reserved $9 ($6 children), general admission $7 ($5 children)
TRAVELERS WEEK AHEAD
TODAY at NW Arkansas, 2:05 p.m.
MONDAY at NW Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
TUESDAY at NW Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY at NW Arkansas, 12:05 p.m.
THURSDAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
FRIDAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
SATURDAY at Springfield, 6:10 p.m.
NATURALS WEEK AHEAD
TODAY Arkansas, 2:05 p.m.
MONDAY Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
TUESDAY Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY Arkansas, 12:05 p.m.
THURSDAY at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.
SATURDAY at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.
The longest game the Travs have played this season -- and longest since a July 31 victory over Tulsa that lasted 4 hours, 48 minutes -- finally ended at 11:48 p.m., 4 hours, 37 minutes after the first of 450 pitches were thrown. The game needed 13 dozen baseballs to complete, and most of the 7,585 fans that were announced had left by the time it was finished.
It lasted so long that Travs Manager Mark Parent was able to leave for about 20 minutes and still return to see the winning run. He jogged down the right-field line in the middle of the 12th inning and returned for the bottom of the 14th, when Briceno singled to center field, Bo Way walked and Angel Rosa bunted both up a base. Tulsa catcher Paul Hoenecke then set up to walk Phillips, but the first pitch skipped to the backstop.
It ended a game in which the Travs collected 10 hits but never led until the game was over.
Tulsa scored a run in the first on Willie Calhoun's double that scored Andrew Toles. The Travs tied it in the fifth when Briceno singled and later scored on Phillips' single.
Tulsa took a 3-1 lead in the 11th when Jordan Tarsovich walked and Paul Hoenecke singled. Later, Tarsovich scored on a sacrifice fly and Hoenecke on a single to right field to make it 3-1.
The Travs got their first hit since the eighth when Alex Yarbrough singled to right in the 11th. Two batters later, Henry was down to his last strike before he pulled a home run to the berm in left field to tie the game at 3-3.
The Travs went without a hit in the 12th and wasted a Yarbrough single in the 13th when he was caught stealing.
D.J. Johnson earned the victory when he pitched the final three innings, his longest outing of the season.
tulsa AB R H BI arkansas AB R H BI
Toles, cf 5 1 1 0 Allday, cf 4 0 1 0
Law, cf/3b 1 0 1 1 Adams, rf 6 0 0 0
Calhoun, 2b 6 0 2 2 Yarbrgh, 2b 6 1 3 0
Garlick, lf 0 0 0 0 Agujilera, 1b 6 0 0 0
Scavuzzo, dh 7 0 0 0 Henry, dh 5 1 1 2
Verdugo, rf 7 0 0 0 Briceno, c 5 2 3 0
Anderson, 1b 6 0 2 0 Way, lf 5 0 1 0
Bellinger, lf/cf 6 0 2 0 Rosa, 3b 5 0 0 0
Trsvch, 3b/2b 4 1 1 0 Phillips, ss 3 0 1 1
Hoenecke, c 6 1 2 0
Maggi, ss 5 0 1 0
TOTALS 53 3 12 3 totals 45 4 10 3
One out when winning run scored
Tulsa 100 000 000 020 00 -- 3 12 0
Arkansas 000 010 000 020 01 -- 4 10 0
DP -- Tulsa 2. LOB -- Tulsa 16, Arkansas 9. 2B -- Calhoun. 3B -- Yarbrough. HR -- Henry (7). SF -- Law. SAC -- Briceno, Rosa. CS -- Phillips, Yarbrough.
tulsa IP H R ER BB SO
Oaks 7 4 1 1 1 3
Johnson 1 1 0 0 0 3
Cash 2 0 0 0 1 1
Broussard 2 3 2 2 1 2
Hooper L, 0-1 11/3 2 1 1 1 2
arkansas IP H R ER BB SO
Nuding 5 3 1 1 2 4
Molina 1 1 0 0 0 0
Edu.Paredes 2 3 0 0 2 0
Reynolds 22/3 1 2 2 2 3
Edw.Paredes 1/3 1 0 0 0 0
Johnson W, 2-3 3 3 0 0 1 4
WP -- Johnson 2, Hooper. HBP -- by Oaks (Henry), by Broussard (Allday). PB -- Briceno. Umpires -- Home: Gibbs; First: Hamm; Third: Felczak. Time -- 4:37. Attendance -- 7,585.
CARDINALS 1, NATURALS 0
Saturday was another silent night for Northwest Arkansas.
Four pitchers combined on a two-hitter as Springfield defeated the Naturals 1-0 before a crowd of 4,822 at Arvest Ballpark. The Cardinals have won three consecutive games after dropping the first game of the series to the Naturals, who’ve lost eight of their last nine.
Trey Nielsen (6-6) earned the victory over Eric Skoglund (3-5), who pitched six innings for Northwest Arkansas. Springfield bunched together three hits in the second inning and scored the game’s only run on a single by Mason Katz. Cameron Gallagher and Ryan O’Hearn each had doubles for Northwest Arkansas’ only hits.
“We’ve got some real good pitchers, but they do, too,” Springfield Manager Dann Bilardello said. “The credit goes to our pitching staff, for sure. Nielsen got it going and our bullpen did a great job.” The series started off well for Northwest Arkansas, when the Naturals collected a season-high 18 hits in a 12-6 victory over the Cardinals. The Naturals’ hitters then struggled badly while losing 2-1 , 2-0 and 1-0 to Springfield.
“For a couple of weeks now, we’ve had good pitching, pretty good defense, but we’re missing that third [element],” Naturals Manager Vance Wilson said. “It’s just the mental approach from our guys.”
Naturals starter Eric Skoglund was in trouble only in the second when the Cardinals had a double and two singles. The Cardinals then loaded the bases, but Skoglund avoided additional damage with a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning.
Sports on 06/19/2016