Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Naturals rally to surge past Travs
Cameron Gallagher thought for sure he was caught Wednesday night.
Leading off third base with one out in the seventh inning, Gallagher was told to break on contact. So when Humberto Arteaga hit a sharp line drive to the shortstop, Gallagher broke for home. When it was caught by Anthony Phillips, Gallagher darted back to third — Phillips’ throw beat him to the base, but Alex Yarbrough’s foot missed the bag to give the Naturals a second chance.
Logan Moon took advantage, when he ripped a single up the middle that scored two runs and gave the Naturals a 3-2 victory over the Travelers at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
“We got fortunate,” Gallagher said. “If he had his foot there, I was out. But he couldn’t find the bag.”
The Naturals avoided a sweep in the three-game series with the Travelers when they scored all three of their
runs in the seventh inning and starter Josh Staumont rebounded after giving up a two-run home run to Zach Welz, his first Class AA at bat, in the second inning.
It also broke a tie between the two teams for first place in the Texas League North Division second-half standings, and kept the Travs from holding first place by themselves for the first time all season.
“The fact that we didn’t come in here and let them sweep us, is good,” Northwest Arkansas Manager Vance Wilson said. “We beat up on each other and it’s usually close at the end. Any time you can take game instead of giving one away is big.”
The Travs looked to be on their way to their sixth consecutive victory through the first six innings. Welz, promoted earlier this week from Class A Inland Empire, turned on a fastball from Staumont for a two-run home run in the second, his fifth of the season in which he has played at three different levels.
“I think he showed the whole organization a bit more power than we thought,” Arkansas Manager Mark Parent said of the home run down the left field line that traveled 365 feet.
The Travs struggled to get to Staumont after that, though. He allowed just one other hit and struck out 7 over 4 innings of his third Class AA start. Aroni Nina held the Travs’ bats in check, too, pitching two scoreless innings, before two more scoreless from Reid Redman and Mark Peterson pitched a perfect ninth to earn his fifth save.
The Travs were retired in order following the Naturals’ three-run, game-deciding seventh.
“There’s no lack of effort and these guys have been doing a great job,” Parent said. “We lost the game. That’s about it. That’s really just it. We’ll go get them tomorrow and see if we can do what we’ve been doing.”
The Naturals won when
they jumped on Carpenter in the seventh. The right-hander mixed in his change-up more than he had in most starts this season and held the Naturals to a single in the second, fifth and sixth innings.
In the seventh, Mauricio Ramos, Gallagher and Carlos Garcia each hit one out singles to load the basis. A wild pitch allowed Ramos to score to put runners on second and third with one out. That’s when Wilson, knowing his team lacks significant power, called for Gallagher to run on contact, hoping a run would score even on a ground ball.
“You’ve got to take your chances,” Wilson said. “We’re anticipating contact and we’re going to cheat to go. Sometimes you line out, but that’s part of it.”
The Naturals got a second chance when Yarbrough’s foot missed the bag — Parent said it was clear from his view in the first-base dugout, too — and Moon took advantage of it. Moon, who was hitting .200 this month, singled up the middle to score Gallagher and Garcia.
“You get to this time of year and you see their stats and they start pressing,” Wilson said. “I think Logan was doing that. But the kid works hard. I’m proud that it was a line drive swing and not a lift. Big hit.”