SPRINGDALE — Turnabout was fair play for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
The Naturals had the big third inning Sunday against Tulsa and capped a series win with a 5-2 win before 3,077 at Arvest Ballpark.
Northwest Arkansas (7-21 second half, 42-56 overall) snapped a seven-series losing streak dating back to the middle of June, winning the first two games of the four-game set and the finale.
Saturday, Tulsa took its lone win in the series with nine runs in the third inning of a 12-2 win.
“[Saturday] night wasn’t very good, but anytime you can win a series, it’s a plus,” Naturals Manager Mike Rojas said. “Good pitching, good defense, good timely hitting. [Saturday] we didn’t get good pitching and didn’t get anything going with the bats. They jumped back in there today and played a real good game.”
Sunday, the Naturals scored four runs in the third inning for the only big inning of the day.
Nick Heath started the third inning with a hard ground ball, which Tulsa second baseman Mike Ahmed tried to backhand but instead booted and then kicked with his foot.
Heath swiped second base and scored on Khalil Lee’s one-out single to right. Jecksson Flores followed with another single to right, sending Lee to second. Erick Mejia reached on a fielder’s choice, and Samir Duenez singled toward the middle against a shift to score Lee and Mejia, who had just stolen second, for a 3-0 lead.
Alex Liddi added a double into the gap in left center that left fielder Jacob Scavuzzo got to but his cutoff throw was off shortstop Errol Robinson’s glove. Rojas was waving the 230-pound Duenez around third all the way to score the fourth run of the inning.
“Scavuzzo was going toward center field,” Rojas said. “I saw Duenez coming hard and I kept him going. The throw went to third base and nicked Robinson’s glove. I read his angle and the throw, knowing where he was going to throw. It worked out. It was really the position of the outfield and where he was going to throw the ball. It wasn’t going to have anything really on the throw. I gambled and it worked out.”
Northwest Arkansas added another run in the fifth on consecutive stand-up doubles with two outs by Xavier Fernandez and Lee.
Emilio Ogando was stellar on the mound for Northwest Arkansas, going six strong innings and allowing just two runs. Rojas was confident in his starter wrapping up the series.
“I felt good; his last outing was good,” Rojas said. “He followed up with another one. He gave our bullpen a break and pitched very well. He had the hitters back and forth. That’s back-to-back starts for him; that’s a plus.”
Sunday’s start was the sixth of the season by Ogando against Tulsa, and he had a 10.06 earned run average in 17 innings of work against the Drillers.
“Quality strikes, and he used his breaking ball and his changeup well,” Rojas said. “He located his fastball well. He kept them off balance.”
Ogando said the best thing that was working for him on Sunday, though, was his defense.
“That was the main thing, the defense was working,” Ogando said. “They were making all those plays, ground balls and deep fly balls, catching those.”
Right after Northwest Arkansas scored four runs in the third, Scavuzzo led off the fourth with a homer that bounced off the wall in the back of the bullpen in left field. After two outs, Wes Darville doubled, and Mike Ahmed hit a deep fly ball to right that Anderson Miller tracked down at the wall to keep the Natural’s lead at 4-1.
“Miller jumping and catching that one was definitely big,” Ogando said. “I didn’t think it was going to go that far.”
Ogando turned it over to the bullpen after six innings with Walker Sheller, Gabe Speier and Andres Machado coming for three shutout innings.
Speier needed just one pitch to coax an inning-ending double play grounder in the eighth inning. Machado then needed just eight pitches to retire the side and clinch the win in the ninth.
SHORT HOPS
Emilio Ogando made his 19th start of the season on Sunday and 10th in which he’s allowed two or fewer runs.
The Naturals had lost seven series in a row dating back to June 17-19 when they took two of three against the Travelers.
Khalil Lee had three hits for Northwest Arkansas on Sunday, marking his first three-hit game since being called to Double-A.
On Deck: Northwest Arkansas opens a four-game series at Arvest Ballpark against the Arkansas Travelers, which includes a doubleheader on Tuesday. Today, Scott Blewett (4-6, 5.75) will start the series opener for the Naturals. Arkansas will go with Chase De Jong (5-4, 4.05). Blewett is 0-2 with three no decisions in his last five starts. Blewett is making his fourth start of the season against the Travelers. De Jong is 0-1 in three starts against the Naturals this season.
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. Bush’s Food Drive benefitting the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank continues through July 25 when fans will receive buy one, get one free tickets for any seating level if they bring a canned food or non-perishable item to the Arvest Ballpark box office, with a maximum of five items per transaction or a limit of 10 total tickets.
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