SPRINGDALE -- The Northwest Arkansas Naturals continued their hot streak through May and their season-long mastery of the Arkansas Travelers with a 4-3 victory Wednesday at Arvest Ballpark.
Northwest Arkansas won its third consecutive one-run game against the Travs in front of an announced crowd of 7,096, most of whom were bused to the 11 a.m. start for a school children's promotion. The victory gave the Naturals a 7-0 lead in the season series.
Today’s game
ARKANSAS AT NORTHWEST ARKANSAS
WHEN 7:05 p.m.
WHERE Arvest Ballpark, Springdale
RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in central Arkansas; KFAY-AM, 1030, in Springdale
WEBSITE travs.com and nwanaturals. com
PITCHERS Travs: Alan Busenitz (RHP, 1-3, 5.91); Naturals: Miguel Almonte (RHP, 4-1, 2.73)
TICKETS $12 super premium, $10 premium, $8 reserved, $7 grass berm
TRAVELERS WEEK AHEAD
TODAY at NW Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY at Springfield, 7:10 p.m.
SATURDAY at Springfield, 6:10 p.m.
SUNDAY at Springfield, 6:10 p.m.
MONDAY at Springfield, 12:10 p.m.
TUESDAY San Antonio, 7:10 p.m.
WEDNESDAY San Antonio, 7:10 p.m.
"[The Naturals] are definitely playing with a lot of confidence in that dugout," Travelers Manager Bill Richardson said. "It's getting a little frustrating because I felt like we had a good chance to win today, but I know our guys and I know we'll get ourselves together and come back and play hard and try to get that win tomorrow.
"It's still May, and it's a 140-game season and we aren't going to lose focus of that."
The Naturals took a 5½ game lead over the Travelers in the Texas League first-half standings. Northwest Arkansas has won 21 of its past 24 games.
The Travelers have played in seven consecutive one-run games, losing four.
The teams close out the series with a 7:05 game tonight.
Arkansas got a strong performance from left-hander starter Tyler DeLoach, who allowed 2 earned runs on 5 hits with no walks while striking out 6 over 7 innings. DeLoach came in ranked among the top five in ERA in the Texas League and barely nudged it up to 2.37 for the season.
"[DeLoach] has been strong all season and he had another good performance," Richardson said. "He wanted to stay in, but we have a schedule we need to stick to. Unfortunately we just didn't back him up enough to get that win."
The Travs led 3-1 in the sixth before the Naturals pushed across a run in the seventh to make it 3-2 on Mike Bianucci's league-leading ninth home run.
Balbino Fuenmayor hit a two-run double in the eighth to push the Naturals on top in the eighth.
"When your big-league club has some success like the Royals did last year in going to the World Series, it just filters down through the whole organization," Naturals Manager Vance Wilson said. "We've got some talented players, and so do [the Travelers]. Our guys have had some success, and they feel confident that we are going to find a way to come out with a victory."
A bright spot offensively for the Travs was second baseman Sherman Johnson, who hit his second and third home runs to get the Travs out to an early lead.
Sports on 05/21/2015