A dejected Edouard Julien made his way back to the dugout, bat in one hand, helmet in the other.
Julien's strikeout was one of many miscues suffered by the Wichita Wind Surge on Sunday at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. The Wind Surge fell 6-1 to Arkansas as the Travelers won their fourth-straight series.
The Travelers (31-26) spent plenty of time on the bases Sunday, drawing more walks (8) than hits (7) to score their 6 runs. The Wind Surge (32-23) didn't handle all of that traffic well as they accounted for five errors, with two of the six runs unearned.
Connor Jones (4-3) made sure not to let that good fortune go to waste, allowing 1 unearned run in 5 innings to get the win. Jones struck out three hitters, including Julien in the fifth inning.
Since the beginning of May, Jones has accumulated a 1.67 ERA with 7 earned runs allowed in 37 2/3 innings. In that span, Jones, as well as teammates Stephen Kolek and Taylor Dollard, have collected a Texas League Pitcher of the Week award.
"Our pitching has been awesome lately," Manager Collin Cowgill said. "We got some hits in key situations when we needed them."
The Travelers' bullpen followed Jones' lead, throwing 4 scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts to 1 hit.
Wichita starter Blayne Enlow (0-1) didn't have the same fortune as his counterpart. Enlow allowed 4 hits and 2 walks in 3 1/3innings and was charged with 1 of the 3 runs that scored against him.
Wichita's middle-infield pairing of Julien and Daniel Ozoria combined to go 2-for-5 at the plate but were the driving force of the defensive mishaps. Julien was responsible for two errors of his own, although it was Ozoria's in the second inning that was the first glimpse of the problems that would follow.
Joe Rizzo led the way for the Travelers at the plate, extending his hit streak to eight games with a pair of hits Sunday. Rizzo reached base four times to bring his OPS to 1.093 over the last two series. Jake Scheiner matched Rizzo's RBI total with two of his own.