RockHounds score late to rip Travs

The Midland RockHounds scored eight of their 11 runs in the final three innings to overcome a 4-3 deficit and beat the Arkansas Travelers 11-6 on Sunday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

Tyler Marincov had the big blow in the seventh inning. Pinch hitting for designated hitter Jermaine Curtis, Marincov ripped a triple to right field off Travelers reliever Darin Gilles to score Jorge Mateo and B.J. Boyd, who both walked, which put the RockHounds up 5-4.

After the Travelers wasted a one-out double by Chris Mariscal in the seventh inning when Chuck Taylor struck out and Ryan Casteel lined out, the RockHounds added two more in the eighth inning.

Tyler Ramirez led off the inning when he launched the first pitch of the inning from Zack Curtis over the right-field wall to make it 6-4. After singles by J.P. Sportman and Andy Paz, Branden Cogswell's sacrifice bunt brought in Sportman to make it 7-4.

After the Travelers went down in order in the eighth inning, Sportman broke the game open in the ninth with a grand slam off the second pitch from Collin Kober. Kober replaced Curtis, who walked Viosergy Rosa and Schrock and hit Ramirez.

The Travelers closed to 11-6 in the bottom of the ninth when Taylor singled in Joey Wong, who led off the inning with walk and moved to second on Chris Mariscal's base hit. Casteel followed with a single past second to score Mariscal.

Trailing 3-0 going into the bottom of the fifth, the Travelers tied the game with a two-out rally off reliever Dustin Hurlbutt, who replaced starter James Naile. Naile allowed 2 hits on 66 pitches in 4 innings. Mariscal hit a 3-run home run after Wong and Braden Bishop walked.

The Travelers took a 4-3 lead in the sixth when Aaron Kurcz, who replaced Hurlbutt and inherited a bases-loaded jam. Kurcz walked Steven Baron to score Casteel, who led off the inning with a walk and moved to third on Marcus Littlewood's single and Seth Mejias-Brean's walk.

The RockHounds took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Curtis singled up the middle to score Boyd, who singled and moved to second on a wild pitch by Travelers starter Aaron West.

Midland made it 3-0 in the fifth when Rosa's sacrifice fly scored Cogswell and Schrock singled to score Mateo.

Kurcz (2-1) pitched two scoreless innings to get the victory. Sam Bragg got his fifth save of the season by pitching the last two innings, despite allowing 2 runs in the ninth.

Boyd, Schrock, Ramirez and Sportman had two hits for the RockHounds.

Gillies (2-3) took the loss for the Travelers, allowing 2 runs on 1 hit in 1 2/3 innings.

Mariscal led the Travelers by going 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI.

Sports on 08/14/2017

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