Memorial Day will be an off day for the Arkansas Travelers.
It's hard to argue anyone needs it more than the Travs after they dropped their fifth consecutive contest Sunday afternoon at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. Arkansas brought the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth when Connor Lien walked to start the inning, but the Drillers needed just eight pitches to record the final three outs and finish off a 2-1 win.
Tyler Herb took the loss despite allowing 2 runs on 6 hits over 7 innings as the Travelers' offense scuffled yet again. Arkansas struck out 16 times and managed a mere four hits -- one of which was Jake Scheiner's solo home run in the sixth.
"Baseball is a weird game," Scheiner said. "You can have a great plan and the pitcher throws great pitches. Tip my hat to that staff -- I know they pitched me really well and they didn't make a lot of mistakes to me personally. But as a group, I think we got away from our overall plan and how to attack these guys.
"It's a long season and I'm glad it happened earlier rather than later. The fact that we can work off it and learn from it is the biggest thing, and how we respond this week is going to tell a lot about our character."
Scheiner, who leads the Travs by a wide margin in both batting average (.292) and on-base-plus-slugging (.930), still struck out twice Sunday, yet the homer came at a crucial time, tying the game at 1-1 before Juan Zabala's solo shot the next half-inning put Tulsa back on top.
It was a reprieve for Scheiner in the midst of a series in which he went 2 for-22 at the plate -- the only other hit was also a home run.
And it came just a week after Scheiner went 8 for 24 with 2 doubles, 2 homers and 7 RBI against Corpus Christi, earning him Class AA Central Player of the Week honors.
"I knew [Guillermo Zuniga's] plan and I knew how he threw me the previous time," Scheiner said of his home run. "I just had confidence that he would repeat that and I worked off of that."
Although the Travelers' bullpen delivered once again in relief of Herb -- Reid Morgan and Jack Anderson combined to give up one hit and strike out four during the eighth and ninth innings -- the Travs' offense stranded a baserunner in every inning but the first, failing to capitalize on opportunities as they did much of the series.
As a team, Arkansas went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position one game after going 0 for 18.
They'll now have a six-plus-hour bus trip today, looking to reset things before 12 games away from North Little Rock. The Travs will play six at Wichita, Kan., this week, then head east for another half dozen in Springfield, Mo.
"Each week I look at like a new season," Scheiner said. "I have that Monday to reflect on my performance -- how I can grow and get better. ... [We need to] forget about this week, come out, go at it hard and play like we did the first few weeks."