Northwest Arkansas Naturals Manager Vance Wilson believes that winning begets winning.
The Naturals won their sixth consecutive game, and 12th of their past 17 games, with a 1-0 victory over the Arkansas Travelers in front of an announced crowd of 3,189 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock on Sunday.
Naturals starting pitcher Jake Junis (2-2) pitched six innings of no-hit ball, before giving up two hits in the bottom of the seventh en route to the victory.
Blayne Weller (1-4) gave up one run over seven innings for the Travelers, who stranded runners in scoring position three times on their way to their fourth consecutive loss.
"Pitching, hitting, whatever you're talking about is so contagious," Vance said. "Our starters have been incredible, really over the past month. These guys are going seven innings of really quality baseball. When they're doing that, you just have so many more options. You can mess with your bullpen a little better."
The Naturals (15-14) scored in the fourth when Bubba Starling drove in first baseman Ryan O'Hearn with his third double in his past two games, this one a blooper that dropped along the foul line in left field.
"You've got to give their pitching staff a lot of credit, Weller was pounding us inside all day," Wilson said. "We were lucky to even scratch off a run today. But, again, our guys have just been playing really good, fundamental baseball."
The breaks keep going the other way for the Travelers (12-18).
Third baseman Angel Rosa walked with one out in the second inning and stole second. But a pop to second base and a liner into the glove of third baseman Mauricio Ramos ended the threat.
Cal Towey broke up Junis' no-hit bid in the bottom of the seventh with a sharp grounder to right field, followed by Wade Wass reaching on a fielder's choice grounder to third base.
A single to shortstop by Eric Aguilera advanced Wass to second with one away. Wass advanced to third on a grounder to first by Alex Yarbrough, but that's as close as he would get before Anthony Bemboom ended the rally with a groundout to second.
The Travelers' best chance at tying things up came one inning later when Rosa led off with a single to right before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Anthony Phillips. Rosa got to third when Ramos overthrew second base on a grounder by Bo Way, leaving the Travelers with runners at first and third with one out.
Chad Hinshaw popped a ball foul on an attempted safety squeeze before striking out swinging. Towey looked at a called strike three to end any serious run by the Travelers.
"You can't punch out with a man on third and less than two outs," Travelers Manager Mark Parent said. "Hinshaw didn't get the safety squeeze down, and then you've got a quick strike on you. You've got to get a run across in that situation. It's funny because he's a good bunter that way, but it just didn't work out that way."
Sports on 05/09/2016