Chuck Taylor belted a tie-breaking two-run home run and three Arkansas relievers combined to retire the final 13 Springfield batters in order Friday night in leading the Travelers to a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals in front of a crowd of 5,794 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
With the game tied 3-3, Ian Miller led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single. Taylor followed with his first home run of the season, a blast that went just out of the reach of right fielder Blake Drake.
Arkansas starter Tyler Herb was removed after 4 rocky innings in which he allowed 2 runs on 5 hits. Springfield, however, left six runners stranded in the first four innings.
Left-hander Ryan Horstman (1-0) and Peter Tago each pitched two innings and Blake Perry worked a perfect ninth inning for his first save.
Jean Segura, playing at Dickey-Stephens for the first time since 2012 and on a rehab assignment with the Seattle Mariners, went 0 for 3 with a walk. Segura lined out to center in the first inning, hit into a groundout in the fourth and lined out to the second baseman for the first out of the sixth.
Kyle Waldrop, whose past seven hits have been for extra bases, started the scoring with a two-run double in the first. He also had a double in the fifth. Miller collected two of the Travelers’ nine hits and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Horstman struck out five of the final six batters he faced. Tago struck out four in two perfect innings.
Losing pitcher Dakota Hudson (1-1) allowed 7 hits and 5 earned runs in 4 innings.