Travs starter in complete control

Sam Selman pitched well Saturday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, but Drew Rucinski pitched a little better.

Rucinski threw a five-hit shutout to power the Arkansas Travelers to a 3-0 victory over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals before an announced crowd of 6,808.

"Unbelievable from beginning to end," Arkansas Manager Phillip Wellman said of Rucinski's performance.

A late-afternoon thunderstorm delayed the start of the Texas League North game 64 minutes, but it took only 2 hours, 29 minutes to complete the game thanks to crisp pitching performances from both starters.

Rucinski (4-4) needed only 99 pitches to record his first career shutout, and first complete-game shutout in the Texas League this season.

"He wouldn't have faced the tying run in the ninth inning, but it never got that far," Wellman said.

Rucinski, a right-hander, threw 71 strikes, struck out six, didn't issue a walk and lowered his earned-run average to 2.73.

Selman (3-4) carried a no-hitter into the sixth before Maikol Gonzalez tripled off the left-field wall to open the inning. Jimmy Swift followed with a looping RBI single to shallow right field for the game's first run.

Rucinski made the lead stand up, retiring the Naturals in order in the seventh and ninth innings.

"All of it was working for him," Wellman said. "He commanded his fastball, first and foremost. That set up all his other pitches -- his change, his split, his slider. It was all working."

The Travelers (30-30) added two insurance runs in the seventh inning.

Kyle Hudson led off with a walk and scored on an RBI double to left field by Kaleb Cowart.

Adam Melker then reached on catcher's interference to put runners on first and second and chase Selman. Reliever Angel Baez struck out Eric Stamets before intentionally walking Gonzalez to load the bases.

Pinch-hitter Erik Komatsu made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly to center.

"Not a lot offense from either side, but there was good pitching," Wellman said.

Northwest Arkansas (20-40) outhit Arkansas 5-3, but the Naturals committed two errors and Selman walked five.

Following the weather delay, Arkansas threatened in the second after center fielder Lane Adams dropped a fly ball to open the inning.

Anderson De La Rosa, who reached on the error, advanced to third with one out following a groundout. But De La Rose was thrown out a home by left fielder Ethan Chapman, who caught Melker's fly ball near the foul line.

Sports on 06/08/2014

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