Travs do plenty of damage in 5th, 6th to toast Cardinals

Arkansas Travelers second baseman Chris Mariscal (right) celebrates with teammates Dario Pizzano and Ryon Healy after his three-run home run Sunday against the Springfield Cardinals.
Arkansas Travelers second baseman Chris Mariscal (right) celebrates with teammates Dario Pizzano and Ryon Healy after his three-run home run Sunday against the Springfield Cardinals.

TEXAS LEAGUE

TRAVELERS 9, CARDINALS 3

The Arkansas Travelers sent 17 batters to the plate in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring 7 runs and backing a pitching staff that allowed 12 hits, but only three runs, in a 9-3 victory over the Springfield Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

The victory, combined with Tulsa's over Northwest Arkansas, put the Travelers within a game of the Drillers in the Texas League North Division with Tulsa coming to North Little Rock for a four-game series starting today.

Andrew Moore (1-0) got the victory for the Travs, allowing 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk while striking out 2 in 5 innings. Jack Woodford (1-2) took the loss, giving up 6 runs on 8 hits with 4 walks and striking out 3 in 4 1/3 innings.

"We were able to string some hits together and Andrew Moore was good on the mound," Arkansas Manager Darren Brown said. "He used up a lot of pitches because they hit a lot of foul balls and he had a difficult time putting guys away. We did a really good job getting out of some innings."

The Travelers, while scoring four runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth, had seven hits in the two innings, taking advantage of four walks, not to mention getting a three-run home run to right field by Chris Mariscal in the fifth.

"Two guys, [Beau] Amaral and [Darin] Pizzano swung the bat well and gave us some good at-bats," Brown said. "Guys took their walks and we came through with some good hits for some big innings.

"We played a pretty good game, swung the bats well, pitched well, played good defense and when you do that most nights you have a good chance of winning the game and that's what today was all about."

Arkansas took advantage of a lead-off walk to Yonathan Mendoza in the third, followed by back-to-back singles by Amaral and Chuck Taylor to go ahead 2-0.

The Cardinals came back with a single run in the fourth when Andrew Knizner started the inning with a double. Victor Roach's two-out single drove in Knizner.

A double play helped get the Cardinals out of the fourth, but the fifth was a different story.

Taylor forced Amaral out following a single. A walk to Ryon Healey and a single by Pizzano scored Taylor. Mariscal started closing the door when he lofted a home run to the Travelers' bullpen in right to make it 6-1. A walk and single followed, but Hector Mendoza got the last two outs.

Singles by Amaral, Healey and Pizzano resulted in Amaral scoring in the sixth. Reliever Jacob Evans forced in two runs when he walked Mariscal and Seth Mejias-Brean to make it 9-1. Tyler Bray came in and got the final eight Travelers.

Springfield added two runs in the eighth on a two-run single by John Nogowski.

Scott Kuzmansky allowed two hits, but no runs in the ninth for the Travs.

Today’s game

ARKANSAS TRAVELERS

VS. TULSA DRILLERS

WHEN 7:10 p.m. WHERE Dickey-Stephens Park, North Little Rock RADIO KARN-AM 920 in central Arkansas WEBSITE travs.com PITCHERS Travs: RHP Chase De Jong (1-1, 4.24); Drillers: RHP Dennis Santana (0-1, 1.93)

THE WEEK AHEAD

TODAY vs. Tulsa, 7:10 p.m. TUESDAY vs. Tulsa, 11 a.m. WEDNESDAY vs. Tulsa, 7:10 p.m. THURSDAY vs. Tulsa, 7:10 p.m. FRIDAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m. SATURDAY at Springfield, 4:10 p.m.

Sports on 04/23/2018

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