The Arkansas Travelers picked up their second consecutive quality start Friday night, but this time the Travs earned the added bonus of a victory.
Max Povse allowed only two hits in seven innings and catcher Tyler Marlette lined a base-loaded triple to left-center field in the third inning as Arkansas claimed a 6-1 victory over the Corpus Christi Hooks in front of 8,445 at Dickey-Stephens Park.
The 6-8 right-hander retired the first 12 Hooks batters in order, and he did not allow a hit until Ramon Laureano's two-out single in the sixth. He finished with five strikeouts, three of them coming in the seventh inning.
Povse, who is ranked as the Seattle Mariners' No. 8 prospect by Baseball America, said the secret to Friday's outing was simply his fastball.
"It was just a lot of one finger down," Povse said of the usual signal for a fastball. "They were aggressive, and that made it easy. I was able to get a lot of early contact and that allowed me to keep my pitch count down."
The Travs' Thursday night starter, Andrew Moore, gave up only one hit in six innings but was rewarded with a no-decision when Corpus scored two runs in the eighth inning. A night after scoring only one run on 11 hits, Arkansas got the most out of 9 hits and 6 walks.
"Both starters have thrown the ball extremely well," Travs Manager Daren Brown said. "I thought Povse was really good tonight and obviously Moore was good last night. Povse attacked their hitters, and he was very efficient with their hitters. He did all the things we wanted him to do."
Povse, who was drafted in the third round of the 2014 draft by the Atlanta Braves, threw only 82 pitches in his seven innings.
"He used the two-seamer a lot tonight," Marlette said of Povse's pitch selection. "And his curveball was working well for us."
The Travelers picked up a run before Corpus Christi could record an out. Leadoff batter Ian Miller reached on an infield single, stole second and scored when Jay Baum's hard-hit line drive went off the glove of Hooks' first baseman Jon Singleton.
Arkansas broke the game open in the third. Miller started the inning with a single and Baum drew a walk before Kyle Waldrop sent a pop fly into shallow right-center field that fell among three defenders and went for a single that loaded the bases.
After Hooks' starter Kent Emanuel struck out Ryan Casteel, Marlette lined a two-ball, two-strike pitch into the deepest part of the park to clear the bases and give Arkansas a 4-0 lead.
Marlette, who had a combined 23 doubles, 15 home runs and 59 RBI with High-A Bakersfield and Class AA Jackson last season, had only one triple in all of 2016.
"That was a tough at-bat," said Marlette, who has five hits in the Travelers' first two games. "I was down two strikes really quick, and I was just trying to do what my coaches said. I took a nice easy swing at the baseball, and they left one up and I connected with it."
"I thought our guys did a nice job of making them get the ball over the plate," Brown said. "When we got a pitch we were able to handle we were able to do some damage with it. Marlette's (hit) was the one thing that was lacking from [Thursday] night."
Arkansas added a run in the sixth on a fielder's choice by Joey Wong and a final run in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk by Brock Hebert.
Mott Hyde drove in the Hooks' lone run with a single in the eighth.
C.CHRISTI AB R H BI ARKANSAS AB R H BI
Laureano, rf 4 0 1 0 Miller, cf 5 2 2 0
Stubbs, c 4 0 0 0 Baum, 3b 4 1 2 1
Ferguson, lf 4 0 0 0 Waldrop, rf 4 1 1 0
Singleton, 1b 3 0 1 0 Casteel, 1b 4 0 0 0
Davis, 3b 4 0 1 0 Marlette, c 3 2 3 3
Garcia, cf 4 0 0 0 Mack, lf 2 0 0 0
Ritchie, dh 2 1 0 0 Petty, dh 4 0 0 0
Mayfield, 2b 3 0 1 0 Wong, ss 4 0 1 1
Hyde, ss 3 0 1 1 Hebert, 2b 2 0 0 0
TOTALS 31 1 5 1 TOTALS 32 6 9 6
Corpus Christi 000 000 010 -- 1 5 0
Arkansas 103 001 01x -- 6 9 0
DP -- Corpus Christi 1, Arkansas 1. LOB -- Corpus Christi 5, Arkansas 8. 2B -- Singleton, Marlette. 3B -- Marlette.
CORPUS CHR. IP H R ER BB SO
Emanuel L, 0-1 4 6 4 4 1 5
Smith 3 1 1 1 3 1
Freeman 1 2 1 1 2 3
ARKANSAS IP H R ER BB SO
Povse W, 1-0 7 2 0 0 1 5
Horstman 1 2 1 1 1 1
Vieira 1 1 0 0 0 2
Umpires -- Home:Gorman; 1B: Conrad; 3B: McCrady. Time -- 2.35. Attendance -- 8,445.
Today’s game
ARKANSAS VS. CORPUS CHRISTI
WHEN 6:10 p.m. WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in central Arkansas WEBSITE travs.com TICKETS $12 box, $8 reserved ($5 kids), $6 general admission ($4 kids)*. Gates open one hour before first pitch. PROMOTION First 1,500 fans receive Travs wall calendar. PITCHERS Travs: RHP Tyler Herb (9-6, 3.98 ERA at Class A and Class AA in 2016; Hooks: RHP Dean Deetz (8-5, 3.76 ERA at Class A and Class AA in 2016) * A $1 charge will be added for tickets purchased the day of the game.
TRAVS WEEK AHEAD
TODAY Corpus Christi, 6:10 p.m. SUNDAY San Antonio, 2:10 p.m. MONDAY San Antonio, 7:10 p.m. TUESDAY San Antonio, 11 a.m. WEDNESDAY Off THURSDAY at Corpus Christi, 7:05 p.m. FRIDAY at Corpus Christi, 7:05 p.m.
Sports on 04/08/2017