TEXAS LEAGUE

Fantastic finish tops strong start

Northwest Arkansas’ Brian Fletcher (7) is greeted by teammates after an 11th-inning home run gave the Naturals a 10-8 victory over the Arkansas Travelers on Wednesday in Tuesday’s suspended game.
Northwest Arkansas’ Brian Fletcher (7) is greeted by teammates after an 11th-inning home run gave the Naturals a 10-8 victory over the Arkansas Travelers on Wednesday in Tuesday’s suspended game.

SPRINGDALE -Aaron Brooks had a hard act to follow, but the Northwest Arkansas Naturals’ starter did his best.

Brooks pitched a four hit shutout in a 7-0 victory against the Arkansas Travelers in front of an announced crowd of 5,690 Wednesday at Arvest Ballpark.

Brooks (5-3) had a no-hitter until two outs in the sixth inning and struck out five without walking a batter.

“He was outstanding on the mound,” Naturals Manager Brian Poldberg said. “He moved the ball in and out, and he used all his pitches. This is one of his better performances.”

And yet, Brooks’ performance was overshadowed because it came on the heels of the Naturals’ thrilling 10-8 victory over the Travs in 11 innings that took two days to complete.

The Naturals and Travelers finished Tuesday’s rain-suspended game before their regularly scheduled game Wednesday. Northwest Arkansas hit a franchise-record six home runs before rain suspended the game in the top of the 10th inning late Tuesday night.

Northwest Arkansas left fielder Brian Fletcher, who hit two home runs Tuesday, hit his third of the game in the bottom of the 11th Wednesday to win it for the Naturals. Fletcher became the first Natural to hit three home runs in a game, and all of Northwest Arkansas’ runs came on home runs.

“It’s not every day you see a team score 10 runs all on home runs,” Arkansas Manager Tim Bogar said. “It was actually a really good game. It’s too bad it went over two days because it lost its drama.”

The drama for the both teams was how the pitching staffs would handle the convoluted scheduling without wearing out. The Travelers used five pitchers in Tuesday’s game and four more Wednesday.

Brooks solved that problem for the Naturals, needing just 96 pitches to finish nine innings.

“We were in a short bullpen situation,” Poldberg said. “Having Brooksie do that puts us in a good position.”

The Naturals got a single run against Travelers starter Lay Batista in the third inning on Orlando Calixte’s sacrifice fly and added a run in the sixth when reliever Elvin Ramirez hit Juan Graterol with a pitch with the bases loaded.

The Travelers still hung close until the seventh, when the Naturals scored five runs against reliever Michael Cisco. Cisco committed a costly throwing error early in the inning, allowed a run on a wild pitch and gave up RBI singles to Cheslor Cuthbert and Graterol and a two-run single to Whit Merrifield.

“If we make a play, we’re only down 2-0,” Bogar said. “Then the wheels fell off.That’s when we have to take a deep breath and stay in the game. It just got away from us.”

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES NW Arkansas 10, Arkansas 8, comp. of susp. game NW Arkansas 7, Arkansas 0 Corpus Christi 5, San Antonio 0 Midland 6, Frisco 0 Tulsa 3, Springfield 0

TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Corpus Christi at Midland, 7 p.m.

Frisco at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m.

Arkansas at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.

NW Arkansas at Springfield, 7:09 p.m.

FRIDAY’S GAMES C. Christi at Midland, 2, 5 p.m.

Arkansas at Tulsa, 7:05 p.m.

Frisco at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m.

NW Arkansas at Springfield, 7:09 p.m.

Sports, Pages 17 on 07/25/2013

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