Naturals Rally For Win

SPRINGDALE -- Leadoff hitter Lane Adams continued his hot hitting and the bottom of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals lineup came through in the clutch Tuesday night.

Adams hit his third home run in two nights, while the bottom of the order came up big in the eighth inning.

How They Scored

Minor League Baseball

Northwest Arkansas 3, Arkansas 2

Arkansas^000^002^000^—^2^5^1

NWA^001^000^02X^—^3^9^1

Williams, Boshers (7), Brady (7) and De La Rosa. Selman, Fassold (6), Williams (8) and Gibbs. W – Williams, 2-0. L – Brady, 0-1. S — Triggs (8). HRs – NWA, Adams (5).

Nine-hole hitter Ethan Chapman delivered the go-ahead run with an RBI single to right field, scoring Micah Gibbs in the bottom of the eighth as the Naturals rallied for a 3-2 win over Arkansas at Arvest Ballpark.

Chapman drove in the winning run two at-bats after catcher Micah Gibbs tied the game with an RBI single. The comeback gave the Naturals (26-45, 1-0) a win to start the second half of Texas League play.

"We kind of had our end of the first half meeting today," Naturals manager Vance Wilson said. "We talked a lot about picking each other up. We'd only come back after six innings one time this year. We just talked about, you've got to play nine innings. If one guy doesn't get it done, the next guy's got to get it done.

"Obviously Gibbs made a couple big plays in that eighth inning. And (Chapman) had the huge hit."

Adams gave the Naturals a 1-0 lead with his solo home run to left field in the bottom of the third, a margin that held until the top of the sixth inning.

Naturals starting left-hander Sam Selman was perfect on the mound through 4 2/3 innings, but his outing unraveled in the sixth inning after giving up a single and walk to start the frame. The bases were loaded after the Naturals missed a key double-play opportunity when third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert was late to the bag for a force out on Maikol Gonzalez' ground ball and his subsequent throw wasn't fielded by first baseman Mark Threlkeld.

The Naturals failed to take advantage of having runners on first and second with no outs in the sixth inning and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. But the bottom of the order came up big when it counted.

SHORT HOPS

• Adams went 2-for-4 with a walk, his fifth multi-hit performance in the Naturals' last 10 games. And the 24-year-old right hander's three home runs in two games are more than he had totaled (two) in the Naturals' first 68 games.

• Naturals relievers Cody Fassold (1 2/3 innings, one hit, no runs), Ali Williams (one inning, one hit, one walk) and Andrew Triggs (one inning, one strikeout) were perfect in relief of Selman. Williams picked up the win and Triggs earned the save by retiring the Travelers in order in the top of the ninth.

Royals Pipeline: Former Arkansas Razorback Brett Eibner hit a two-out, two-run home run in the fifth inning to help AAA Omaha beat Albuquerque 13-6 on Tuesday night. Eibner entered the night hitting .238 with five home runs and 24 RBIs for the Storm Chasers, but had hit .351 in Omaha's last 10 games. He was 2-for-5 on Tuesday.

On Deck: The Naturals and Travelers wrap up their four-game series at 12:05 p.m. today. Northwest Arkansas will throw right-hander Andy Ferguson (4-6, 3.84 ERA) against Arkansas right-hander Orangel Arenas (5-2, 2.36). The Naturals will continue the eight-game homestand Thursday when they open a four-game series with Tulsa.

Today's Promotion: Summer Camp Day

On The Air: KQSM-FM 92.1

On The Web: www.nwanaturals.com.

Sports on 06/18/2014

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