NW Democrat-Gazette

Travs lose no-hitter in the 9th

TRAVELERS 3, DRILLERS 2

ELI LEDERMAN

Arkansas Travelers reliever Darin Gillies got a line out from Tulsa’s Hunter Feduccia and struck out Michael Busch to open the ninth inning Sunday, and with two outs the 6-4 righthander stood on the brink of history.

For the first 82/ innings 3 at Dickey-Stephens Park, the Travelers had held the visitors without a hit.

“That’s a pressure situation for everybody,” Gillies said. “Emotions are high.” Gillies proceeded to walk Donovan Casey on four pitches, then quickly got ahead 0-2 Miguel Vargas.

From the mound, and to most gathered inside the North Little Rock ballpark, his fourth pitch looked like strike three on the outside corner, but home plate umpire Mike Carroll thought otherwise and called ball one. On his fifth pitch, Gillies hung a slider that Vargas sent comfortably over the wall in left-center field for a home run, and history was dashed.

“It’s a bummer how it shakes out there,” Gillies said. “It’s obviously a historic thing that doesn’t happen very often. You want to finish something like that out.”

Six Travs pitchers treated the home crowd of 3,596 to a dazzling pitching performance on Father’s Day, no-hitting the Drillers for the first 82/ innings before falling 3 short of the Travelers’ first no-hitter since 2016 in a 3-2 win. Vargas’ home run represented Tulsa lone hit in the series finale with three walks the only other blemishes for Travs pitching.

Reid Morgan ( 3- 3) replaced an injured Tyler Herb in the first inning and led a locked-in bullpen effort. He threw 32/ scoreless innings 3 to earn the win and Jack Anderson, Ray Kerr and Michael Stryffeler combined for four no-hit innings before Gillies entered. The Travs produced just four hits of their own but were powered by home runs from Connor Kopach and David Masters off Tulsa starter Andre Jackson (2-2) to win their fifth of six games ahead of a 12-game road trip.

“I can’t say enough about that effort from the bullpen,” Travelers Manager Collin Cowgill said. “That’s the second time Reid Morgan has had to come in after an injury and he was great. Jack Anderson was outstanding. Stryffeler, too. Gillies just made one mistake and they capitalized on it.”

Herb struck out Busch to open his sixth start of the season but exited after six pitches. He was replaced by Morgan and left the Travs bullpen to get through the remainder of the game Cowgill did not have a postgame update on Herb’s status.

“That was less than ideal,” Cowgill said. “But we’ve had back-to-back really good starting performances so we had a full, rested bullpen. In another situation if we didn’t have as many bodies down there it would have been different. Having a fresh Reid Morgan and a fresh Jack Anderson is helpful.”

Morgan entered for his first outing since June 15 and retired the first six batters he faced before issuing a fourth-inning walk to Romer Cuadrado. The Tulsa outfielder was the only base runner Morgan allowed as he retired 11 of the 12 batters he faced to carry the Travelers into the middle innings.

“Reid attacked the zone today,” Cowgill said. “It worked for him.”

Kopach opened the scoring in the third inning with his second home run in as many days, this one a two-run shot to left field that left the bat at 100 mph and traveled 418 feet. Masters padded the lead with 425-foot solo home run in the fifth inning to hand the Travs a 3-0 lead.

Anderson replaced Morgan for the fifth inning and picked right up, setting the Drillers down in order across two perfect innings. Kerr struck out Casey to begin the seventh before getting two fly-ball outs, and Stryffeler worked around a lead-off walk in the eighth to keep the visitors hitless.

Gillies entered for the ninth and Feduccia shot his fifth pitch to Masters at second base and followed with a five-pitch strike out of Busch.

A foul ball and a swinging strike by Vargas sent the Drillers down to their last strike, and the no-hitter appeared secure on Gillies’ pitch that Carroll called outside.

“It looked good to me, but they call the balls and strikes and I have to live with it,” Gillies said.

One pitch later, Vargas was rounding the bases.

“My pitch was a little bit up in the zone for my liking,” Gillies said. “1-2 there I need to bury that pitch a little bit more.”

NATURALS 8, MISSIONS 2

Nick Pratto hit a three-run home run in the first inning to help the Northwest Arkansas Naturals defeat the San Antonio Missions in the finale of the sixgame series Sunday at Nelson Wolff Stadium in San Antonio.

Pratto’s home run gave the Naturals a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

The Naturals extended their lead to 5- 0 in the top of the second inning. Rudy Martin stole third base, then came home on San Antonio catcher Juan Fernandez’ throwing error. Then, Bobby Witt Jr. singled to center field to score Clay Dungan for a 5-0 lead.

San Antonio cut the lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third inning. But Northwest Arkansas added a run in the top of the fifth inning on Dennicher Carrasco’s RBI single.

Northwest Arkansas made it 8-2 in the top of the seventh inning. Brewer Hicklen’s RBI double scored Travis Jones for a 7-2 lead, and Carrasco picked up his second RBI single of the game to cap the Naturals’ scoring.

Carrasco, Hicklen and Witt Jr. all had two hits apiece for the Naturals, who outhit the Missions 10-4.

Jon Heasley (3-1) earned the victory for Northwest Arkansas. Heasley allowed a run on 2 hits and struck out 3 in 5 innings.

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2021-06-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.nwaonline.com/article/282406992311519

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