The Arkansas Travelers turned four double plays in the first four innings to back a solid pitching performance from Ricardo Sanchez in a 6-0 victory Saturday night over the Amarillo Sod Poodles in front of 6,029 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Sanchez (4-1) allowed 6 singles and walked 2 while striking out 3 in 7 innings. The left-hander from Valencia, Venezuela, lowered his ERA to 0.84, which is tops in the Texas League.
"It's been fun to play behind our pitchers," said Travelers' second baseman Jordan Cowan, who was involved in all four of Saturday's double plays. "Sanchez did a great job tonight getting us ground balls. Our job is to get outs for him, and luckily we had the opportunities to get it done."
Arkansas entered the series with Amarillo having turned only 11 double plays in its first 20 games. The Travelers have turned seven double plays in their two games against the Sod Poodles.
One of the most impressive stops came in the fourth inning when third baseman Logan Taylor dove to his left to make a stop of a hard-hit ball by Jorge Ona, then threw from his knees to start an inning-ending double play.
"The defense did a tremendous job," Travs Manager Mitch Canham said. "The work they are putting in is paying off. Sanchez had a lot movement on his pitches tonight, and he got a ton of ground balls. Our guys were loose, and they were getting the ball out of their gloves quickly."
The Travs' defensive mastery did not stop with the double plays. Center fielder Kyle Lewis made a diving catch of Ona's sinking line drive to start the seventh. Cowan went low for a diving catch of Chris Baker's bases-loaded liner to end the seventh.
"It was awesome," Cowan said. "It's funny because I had been talking to our coaches about coming off of surgery and kind of feeling hesitant about diving in general. To be able to make that catch there was a lot of satisfaction in being able to make that play for the team."
The Travelers chased Sod Poodles starter T.J. Weir (2-1) after 4 innings, collecting all 6 runs and 9 hits off the right-hander. Arkansas finished with 12 hits, and all nine batters had at least one hit.
Designated hitter Nick Zammarelli, who came into the game hitting .183, provided the biggest hit -- a bases-loaded triple in the third inning that expanded the Travelers' lead to 4-0.
"I know Zamp can run a little bit," Canham said. "He can get down the line when he really needs to. He was definitely amped up when he came up in that big moment. He's hit the ball hard a lot, he just hasn't had a lot of them to fall. That was a big moment for all of us."
Cowan singled and scored in the second inning on a double-play ground ball -- one of three that the Travelers hit into on Saturday. Arkansas scored twice in the fourth when Joe DeCarlo doubled and scored on David Sheaffer's single. Sheaffer made it 6-0 when he came home on Evan White's double.
Arkansas relievers Art Warren and Dan Altavilla each pitched one hitless inning. The game ended with Lewis chasing down Buddy Reed's fly ball on the warning track.
"Kyle has been unbelievable, in fact the whole outfield and infield have made great plays all year," Cowan said. "We want to keep the routine plays routine, and those diving plays we made today they're going to happen. You just have to let your ability take over and hope for the best."
AMARILLO AB R H BI ARKANSAS AB R H BI
Orozco, cf 3 0 1 0 Walton, ss 4 0 1 0
Olivares, dh 3 0 0 0 Fraley, rf 4 1 2 0
Miller, ss 3 0 1 0 White, 1b 2 1 1 1
Ona, lf 4 0 1 0 Lewis, cf 3 1 1 0
Potts, 3b 4 0 1 0 Zammrelli, dh 4 0 2 3
Overstrt, 1b 3 0 0 0 Cowan, 2b 3 1 1 0
Rivas, c 3 0 1 0 Taylor, 3b 4 0 1 0
Reed, rf 3 0 1 0 DeCarlo, c 4 1 2 0
Baker, 2b 3 0 0 0 Sheaffer, lf 4 1 1 1
TOTALS 29 0 6 0 totals 32 6 12 5
Amarillo 000 000 000 -- 0 6 0
Arkansas 013 200 00x -- 6 12 1
E -- DeCarlo. DP -- Amarillo 3, Arkansas 4. LOB -- Amarillo 8, Arkansas 7. 2B -- Fraley, White, DeCarlo. 3B -- Zammarelli. SB -- Walton.
AMARILLO IP H R ER BB SO
Weir L, 2-1 4 9 6 6 3 3 Lloyd 3 2 0 0 1 0
Munoz 1 1 0 0 0 3
ARKANSAs IP H R ER BB SO
Sanchez W, 4-1 7 6 0 0 2 3
Warren 1 0 0 0 1 0
Altavilla 1 0 0 0 1 0
WP -- Sanchez, Warren. Balk -- Weir. HBP -- by Sanchez (Olivares), by Weir (Walton). Umpires -- Home: Robinson; First: Stukel; Third: Barba. Time -- 2:24. Attendance -- 6,029.
Sports on 04/28/2019