Naturals have no answer for Travs’ bats

TEXAS LEAGUE TRAVELERS 11, NATURALS 4

SPRINGDALE — The Arkansas Travelers didn’t get cheated at the plate in their four-game series against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

The Travs scored 11 more runs Tuesday afternoon for a total of 38 in the series, taking an 11-4 victory and winning three out of four games in front of 3,975 at Arvest Ballpark.

Even in their only loss of the series — a 10-9 setback Sunday — the Travs swung the bats well.

“Obviously we’re a little bit different club than what we were earlier in the year,” Travs Manager Daren Brown said. “Our guys as of late, when we’ve gotten good pitches to hit, we haven’t missed them.”

The Travs turned a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead with a five-run third inning, aided by a pair of errors by the Naturals.

Northwest Arkansas had a chance to get out of the inning with a 2-1 lead, but a fielding error by first baseman Samir Duenez and a throwing error by second baseman Carlos Diaz on the same play allowed two runs

to score. Duenez booted the ball at first and it bounced to Diaz, who made a wild throw, allowing Arkansas to score two runs.

Keury De La Cruz ripped a two-run single later in the inning as the Travs took a 5-2 lead and ended the start by Naturals right-hander Corey Ray (4-4), who lasted only 22/3 innings.

The big blow came in the

fourth when Tyler Marlette hit a grand slam — a mammoth shot off the roof of the Bud Light Cafe beyond left field — as Arkansas took a 9-2 lead.

“Obviously we made a couple of defensive mistakes, and then I thought we lost our motion pitching-wise,” Naturals Manager Vance Wilson said. “We didn’t execute. They’re a good team. They’ve made some changes, and they’re a good team. They came in here and whooped us a little bit, but with that being said it’s a new series starting tomorrow.”

Tempers flared between the two teams when Marlette came back to the plate in the fifth. Naturals reliever Andrew Edwards threw two consecutive pitches inside to Marlette, with the second going to the backstop and allowing a run to score. Edwards and Marlette barked at each other, and both benches cleared with Edwards being ejected from the ballgame.

Dylan Unsworth (5-5) got the victory for the Travs. Unsworth gave up a pair of runs in the second inning but pitched five consecutive scoreless frames with only two hits allowed the rest of the game.

Dario Pizzano finished with 4 hits — all singles — for the Travs, while Keury De La Cruz had 3 hits and 2 RBI.