TEXAS LEAGUE

Merrifield’s triple sparks Naturals

Whit Merrifield had a two-run triple among his three hits and the Northwest Arkansas Naturals overcame three errors in an 8-5 victory over the Springfield Cardinals on Friday night at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo.

Only one of Springfield’s five runs were earned thanks to errors by Justin Trapp, Angel Franco and Cheslor Cuthbert, but the Naturals offense came through, scoring seven of their runs after the fifth inning.

The Naturals were trailing 3-1 entering the sixth when Cuthbert hit an RBI double and Jorge Bonifacio scored on a groundout to tie the game at 3-3.

In the seventh, Franco drew a walk, moved to second on a walk to Lane Adams, tothird on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Trapp’s bunt single. Merrifield hit his first triple of the year to right-center field, scoring Adams and Trapp to make it 6-3. Bonaficio added a sacrifice fly that scored Merrifield for a 7-3 lead.

The Naturals, who took three games in the four-game series, added a run in the ninth when Merrifield singled to score Adams.

Merrifield went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored.

Malcolm Culver made it through a ninth inning that included two unearned runs brought on by Cuthbert’s throwing error, a wild pitch and the ejection of Naturals hitting coach Andre David.

Travis Tartamella reachedon Cuthbert’s error, moved to third on Ortega’s single and scored on a groundout. Ortega later scored on Culver’s wild pitch, and after Curt Smith’s single, Cody Stanley grounded out to end the game.

Sports, Pages 23 on 05/03/2014

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