Curletta continues surge for Travelers

TRAVELERS 10, CARDINALS 4

Joey Curletta says he has never been on a hot streak like this one.

Curletta smashed two home runs Thursday night, giving the 24-year-old first baseman five in his past three games, as the Arkansas Travelers routed the Springfield Cardinals 10-4 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

In his past seven games, Curletta is 14 of 31 (.452) with 5 home runs and 14 RBI.

“I’m just riding the wave,” Curletta said. “I’m seeing the ball well and sticking to my approach and not letting the pitchers dictate my approach. I’m not trying to hit home runs, but it’s happening.”

His two home runs Thursday gave him a Texas Leaguebest 20 for the season. He also leads the league in RBI (72) and walks (62).

“He’s been swinging at strikes, and that’s a big thing for him,” Arkansas Manager Daren Brown said. “What says the most about him is that he’s still leading the league in walks, which means he’s making them throw him strikes. When he does that, we know he has power and he’s got a chance to hurt you.”

Arkansas banged out 14 hits Thursday, including four by Logan Taylor and three by Beau Amaral, who entered the game in the fourth inning after starting center fielder Braden Bishop was removed after being hit by a pitch.

Starting catcher Joe DeCarlo suffered a similar injury in the sixth and was also removed from the game. Both Bishop and DeCarlo were hit on the hand.

“They were in some pain,” Brown said. “We took them out, and we’ll know a little more [today].”

Curletta’s power surge started with a 411-foot blast to left to lead off the second inning. He added a two-run shot in the fifth, connecting on a 396-foot shot to right off Landon Beck (2-3) to break a 2-2 tie.

In his last two at-bats, Curletta’s 332-foot sacrifice fly came within a few feet of a third home run and a 381foot drive was chased down in deep center field.

“I never assume they’re home runs here,” Curletta said of the Travs’ home field. “It’s a tough park to hit one out. I didn’t really get the one to right field that well, and the one to center was a typical Dickey-Stephens fly out.”

Williams Perez (2-0),

whose previous outing came at Class AAA Tacoma, lasted 52/3 innings. He struck out 6, walked 2 and allowed 8 hits.

Chuck Taylor also had two hits and drove in two runs for the Travs, who improved to 18-7 against the Cardinals this season.

Springfield also collected 14 hits, including four by second baseman Ramon Urias and three by Evan Mendoza. John Nogowski drove in three of the Cardinals’ runs with an infield single and two sacrifice flies.