TEXAS LEAGUE

Travelers get rolling, cruise

Correa ends skid, puts away Naturals with offensive help

SPRINGDALE - Arkansas Travelers right-hander Manny Correa just needed a little confidence boost, and 10 early runs seemed to do the trick.

Correa picked up his first victory since May 28 with a solid six-inning effort in a 10-3 victory against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals in front of 3,230 fans Monday night at Arvest Ballpark. Correa was helped by his teammates, who totaled 10 runs in the fourth and fifth innings in a show of support.

“Manny is probably the guy who cares the most,” Travelers Manager Tim Bogar said. “It takes the monkey off his back. Now he can relax, and it gets his confidence back. He takes his lumps very hard.”

The Travelers were the ones handing out lumps Monday, although it took them until the fourth inning to start. Naturals starter Jason Adam (4-10) was masterful in the first three innings, facing just one batter over the minimum and allowing no hits.

Things fell apart for Adam and the Naturals in the fourth. Taylor Lindsey led off with a walk and Cyle Hankerd singled, and Adam couldn’t recover.

The Travelers got an RBI single from C.J. Cron for a 1-0 lead, and Hankerd scored on a double play to put the Travelers ahead 2-0. Adam then gave up Travis Witherspoon’s 10th home run of the season before the inning ended.

The f ifth inning was worse. The first four Travelers reached base on hits, with Lindsey and Hankerd driving in runs with singles to put Arkansas ahead 5-0.

After an out, Kaleb Cowart doubled in a run to chase Adam. After allowing no hits in the first 10 at-bats, Adam gave up 9 hits in the next 13.

“Jason, the first three innings, threw as good as he had all year,” Naturals Manager Brian Poldberg said. “Give their hitters credit. He wasn’t able to stop it. It was one of those nights, we couldn’t right the ship.”

The Travelers kept up the offense in the fifth against Naturals reliever Andy Ferguson. After a walk loaded the bases, Robbie Widlansky hit a three-run double and then scored on Caleb Ramirez’s double for a 10-0 lead.

“We did a better job with [Adam’s] pitches in the zone,” Bogar said. “He left some balls up, and we didn’t miss them.It was a little snowball. Once the snowball goes downhill, it’s hard to stop.”

It was more than enough for Correa. The Naturals cut the deficit to 10-2 in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk by Brian Fletcher and an RBI single by Matt Fields.

Correa (4-10) allowed 7 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings.

Northwest Arkansas picked up a run against Arkansas reliever Ryan Chaffee in the eighth on Chelsor Cuthbert’s RBI groundout, which drove in Brian Fletcher.

Aside from the fourth and fifth innings, the Travelers had only two hits in the other seven innings and finished with 15 strikeouts against four Naturals pitchers.

Texas Leaguex-won first half SATURDAY’S GAMES Northwest Arkansas 3, Springfield 1 Arkansas 6, Tulsa 5, 10 innings Corpus Christi 9, Frisco 1 San Antonio 4, Midland 2 SUNDAY’S GAMES Northwest Arkansas 5, Springfield 4 Arkansas 7, Tulsa 2 Frisco 11, Corpus Christi 10 San Antonio 6, Midland 3MONDAY’S GAMES Arkansas 10, Northwest Arkansas 3 Midland 4, Frisco 1 Corpus Christi 6, San Antonio 4 Springfield 3, Tulsa 2 TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Arkansas at NW Arkansas, 7 p.m.

San Antonio at Corpus Christi, 7:05 p.m. Midland at Frisco, 7:05 p.m.

Tulsa at Springfield, 7:09 p.m.

Sports, Pages 13 on 07/23/2013

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