SPRINGDALE — San Antonio continues to play like it’s on a mission in Arkansas.
The Missions opened a three-game series against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Sunday with an 8-4 win before a chilly crowd of 3,875 at Arvest Ballpark.
San Antonio closed a three-game season-opening series with a doubleheader sweep in North Little Rock on Saturday against the Travelers before Sunday’s series-opening win against the Naturals. San Antonio is 35-28 in Arkansas against the Travelers and Naturals since 2013.
Sunday, San Antonio’s Josh Naylor continued his torrid start to the season.
“We’re doing extremely well right now,” Naylor said. “Hopefully, we can carry that through the whole season. That’s the goal, play as a team and have fun as a team and win.”
Sunday, he singled home a run in the second inning to crack a 1-1 tie and then bombed a two-run homer way over the wall in deep right in the fourth inning for a 5-1 lead.
With three homers, Naylor has already exceeded his total of two homers in 42 games in Double-A last year for the Missions.
“I’m just trying to help the team win and be a good teammate,” Naylor said. “I’m just trying to find any opportunity I can to get on base for my teammates.”
Naylor was born in Canada and played hockey growing up but just fell in love with baseball, which has turned out to be a good choice for the 2015 first-rounder, who at the 12th overall pick is the highest-drafted Canadian-born position player.
“I was just more in love with baseball than I was with hockey,” Naylor said. “Hockey is more of a seasonal thing. When it’s winter time everybody plays hockey. Gradually, you get into baseball when April hits. I was pretty good in hockey, but not good enough to play in OHL or NHL. My brothers were, but baseball has been our one love. My dad loved baseball when he was younger. It was baseball all around the house and all of our talks were all about baseball, and games on TV daily.”
On the mound for the Missions on Sunday, lefty Jerry Keel earned the win with 10 strikeouts in five innings.
“He pitched well,” Northwest Arkansas Manager Mike Rojas said. “He threw strikes and got ahead of hitters. He got in some trouble in the first inning, but got out of it.”
Jecksson Flores, Erick Mejia and Elier Hernandez all singled in the bottom of the first inning, and paired with an error allowed the Naturals to tie the game at 1-1. The Naturals touched Keel for five base runners over the next four innings but stranded all of them, which could have kept them closer.
“We had a couple of good ABs, but we didn’t put anything together,” Rojas said. “Our pitching wasn’t very good. We got behind the eight-ball early and couldn’t catch up.”
Corey Toups homered to lead off the bottom half of the ninth inning for the Naturals, and Mejia tripled home a pair of runs but that was it for the rally.
SHORT HOPS
The first inning on Sunday took 28 minutes with both teams sending six batters to the plate and the two starting pitchers combining for 54 pitches after which the game was tied, 1-1.
San Antonio’s Jerry Keel, Jared Carkuff and Colby Blue-berg combined to retire 12 straight Natural batters from the fifth inning through the eighth innings.
Mike Rojas, Jr., son of Naturals Manager Mike Rojas, is a backup catcher for the Auburn Tigers, who played the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville over the weekend for a Southeastern Conference series.
On Deck: The Naturals will play the middle game of a three-game series against San Antonio. The Naturals will start Glenn Sparkman on the mound on Monday while Jesse Scholtens will start for San Antonio. Sparkman is making his season debut for the Naturals, but he has pitched parts of three seasons for the club. He owns 23 career starts for Northwest Arkansas and is 10-10 with a 3.45 earned run average. Sparkman, who was drafted in 2013 out of Wharton Junior College in Texas, ended last season with the Naturals. Scholtens is in his third year of playing professionally and will be making his Double-A debut after pitching in 44 career minor league games, all at the Single-A level.
Tonight’s Promotion: Ozarks Electric Cooperative Corporation will sponsor $5 Dugout Premium Ticket night at Arvest Ballpark for Ozarks Electric Cooperative customers, which must show proof of being a customer. Tyson Foods will sponsor Dollar Hot Dogs while Indigo Sky Casino will sponsor bingo for prizes.
On The Air: KQSM-FM 92.1
On The Web: w w w.nwanaturals.com
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