Naturals survive against Drillers

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals survived a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth and scored three times in the 10th to beat the Tulsa Drillers 5-2 before an announced crowd of 8,031 at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jose Gonzalez singled to right off Edwin Carl and Cristhian Adames singled to left. Jason Shepherd had a sacrifice bunt to move Gonzalez and Adames up. After Delta Cleary was intentionally walked, Angelys Nina lined to second baseman Angel Franco, who threw to first to double off Cleary.

In the top of the 10th, Tim Sexton walked Matt Fields and Whit Merrifield doubled to right to move Fields to third. Alex McClure’s sacrifice fly scored Fields and moved Merrifield to third. Former Arkansas Razorback Brett Eibner had an infield single to third, scoring Merrifield. After Eibner stole second, he left the game with an injured shoulder and was replaced by Roman Hernandez. Hernandez advanced to third on Franco’s single to left and scored on Rey Navarro’s sacrifice fly.

The Naturals scored twice in the first when Navarro singled in Eibner and Navarro scored on Yem Prades’ sacrifice fly.

Canham led the Naturals by going 3 for 5 while Merrifield went 3 for 4 and scored a run. Kent Matthes went 2 for 5 for Tulsa while Parker and Gonzalez each went 2 for 4 and Adames went 2 for 3.

Carl (1-1) pitched the final two innings for the Naturals to pick up the victory. Sexton (0-1) took the loss for Tulsa.

Sports, Pages 27 on 04/28/2013

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