The Northwest Arkansas Naturals saw their postseason hopes come to an end as the Arkansas Travelers drew one step closer to their third Texas League playoff appearance in four seasons.
The Naturals came back from a three-run deficit to drop the Travs 6-5 in the first game, but the Travs jumped out to an early lead to win the second game 5-2 in front of an announced crowd of 6,249 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
The Travs' victory, coupled with second-place Springfield's 5-0 loss to first-half champion Tulsa, gives the Travs a 6 1/2 game lead in the Texas League North with eight games remaining.
The Travs' magic number is 3 -- meaning that any combination of Arkansas victories and Springfield defeats that add up to 3 clinches the second-half North Division title for Arkansas.
Arkansas can clinch a tie for the title tonight with a victory over Northwest Arkansas and a Springfield loss to Tulsa.
Travelers Manager Phillip Wellman wasn't interested in scoreboard watching after his team split with the Naturals.
"The only scoreboard I'm watching is ours," Wellman said. "That's the only one we've got to be concerned with. If we take care of business, we'll be in. It's as simple as that."
Naturals Manager Vance Wilson said that he was pleased to see his team playing well, despite the elimination from postseason play on Sunday.
"We really haven't been competitive the last week, despite it being the most important week of the season," Wilson said, referring to the Naturals' seven-game losing streak entering Sunday's doubleheader. "Our last 10 games, we're just trying to be competitive, playing to win the game. We're a little shorthanded pitching and a few other things, but I was really proud of the way the guys played today."
Northwest Arkansas broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the seventh in the first game to score the winning run.
Travs reliever Michael Brady issued a one-out walk to Hunter Dozier, then, after striking out Jorge Bonaficio, Brady surrendered the game-winning double to Mark Threlkeld.
In the second game, the Travs jumped out early with a Maikol Gonzalez scoring from third on a sacrifice fly from Brian Hernandez in the first. They tacked on four more in the second, with Eric Stamets driving in Adam Melker from second with a run-scoring double to left. Stamets and Drew Heid then came in on a two-run single to center field by Gonzalez, who then scored for the second time in two innings on an RBI single to shortstop by Hernandez to make it 5-0.
The Naturals cut into the Travelers lead in the fourth-inning when backup catcher Juan Graterol and Threlkeld drove in Brian Fletcher and Dozier with an RBI single to center by Graterol and a sacrifice grounder by Threlkeld.
Sports on 08/25/2014