Big hit continues to elude Travelers

TEXAS LEAGUE NATURALS 5, TRAVELERS 2

On Monday night, the Arkansas Travelers couldn’t fix their recent inability to get hits when they matter, and a well-timed leap at the worst possible time summed up that issue more than anything else.

The Travs trailed the Northwest Arkansas Naturals 1-0 when Joey Curletta lined into a double play with the bases loaded to end the third inning. Naturals second baseman Nicky Lopez snagged the baseball nearly parallel with the bag and flipped it to his shortstop to finish the play.

Northwest Arkansas (1119) went on to win 5-2 against Arkansas (14-15) at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, and the Travs have now gone 3 for 30 (.100) with runners in scoring position during the series, which concludes at 7:10 p.m. today.

“You look for someone to come through with the big hit for you,” Travs Manager Daren Brown said. “We’re getting guys on base, it’s just a matter of being able to stay somewhat locked in and still get a good pitch to hit when we have a chance to do something. Sometimes that’s easier to talk about than it is when you’re standing in the box

with a couple of guys on base, but that’s where we’ve got to get to.”

Northwest Arkansas entered Monday’s game with the fourthranked team ERA in the Texas League (4.41 ERA), and the Naturals have gone 10 for 40 (.250) with runners in scoring position during this series.

Brown said the Travs’ issue is more situational than psychological.

“We don’t do anything different than if there were nobody on,” he said. “You’re still looking for a pitch that you can hit hard somewhere. It doesn’t change with runners on base. It tends to be a little bit more of pitchers aren’t going to give you the same pitches. They don’t want to give up any runs, and we’ve just got to compete against that.”

Travs right-handed starter Nathan Bannister (2-2, 5.87 ERA) earned the loss after pitching 6 innings with 9 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks and no strikeouts. It was his first quality start (6 or more innings, 3 or fewer earned runs) of the season.

Bannister allowed his first run on a groundout in the second inning, which came after the Naturals recorded a walk and a single.

The Naturals’ next two runs were more convincing.

Samir Duenez hit a two-run, 431-foot home run in the fourth that bounced off the concourse beyond the right-field wall. That gave the Naturals a 3-0 lead that the Travs would not overcome.

It was the second home run in three games for Duenez, who has recorded eight RBI in the past five games. During that stretch, Duenez has not hit often (.238 batting average) but has hit powerfully (.571 slugging) with a double and 2 home runs.

Naturals left-handed reliever Sam Selman (1-1, 5.56 ERA) earned the victory, holding the Travs to a hit and no runs in 11/3 innings.

Curletta hit a two-run double to left-center field in the bottom of the fifth, which brought the Travs within 3-2.

Naturals center fielder Donnie Dewees hit an RBI single in the sixth, and Duenez hit an RBI sacrifice fly in the ninth to set the final score.