The Arkansas lineup did not leave much room Friday night for a losing streak to get comfortable.
One night after having a seven-game run clipped, the Travelers turned Dickey-Stephens Park into a long offensive exercise for Northwest Arkansas, piling up 16 hits and getting at least one run from every starter in a 13-5 win over the Naturals. Four Arkansas hitters had three-hit games, Charlie Pagliarini doubled three times, and Josh Caron and Josh Hood each drove a two-run homer into the night to keep the game from ever shrinking back into danger.
The first separation came in the second, and it started with pressure instead of thunder. Hunter Fitz-Gerald and Caron opened the inning with walks against Grant Gambrell, and Caleb Cali pushed Arkansas ahead with a grounder toward third. Justin Johnson made the diving stop near the line, but his throw toward second was late and wide, allowing Fitz-Gerald to score and Caron to move to third.
Sammy Siani followed by shooting a ball through the right side to bring home Caron. After Josh Hood struck out, Bill Knight walked against Brandon Johnson and Jonny Farmelo drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-0.
That inning gave Arkansas control. The fourth made the game feel like the Travelers had a grip on the whole series again.
Pagliarini drove in Boston Smith with a line-drive double to right, Fitz-Gerald followed with his own run-scoring double, and Caron supplied the inning’s loudest swing. He drove Tommy Molsky’s offering to straightaway center, over Spencer Nivens’ chase and beyond the batter’s eye, a two-run shot that made it 7-0. It was Caron’s third homer with Arkansas.
Northwest Arkansas did make one push. Lael Lockhart carried the shutout into the fifth before a hit batter, a walk and another walk loaded the bases. Nivens, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, singled to center to cut the Arkansas lead to 7-3. Will Armbruester entered and stopped the inning there, getting Daniel Vazquez on a lineout to short.
Lockhart was charged with three earned runs over 4.2 innings, striking out five and walking two. Armbruester earned the win with 2.1 innings of one-run relief.
Pregame, Travelers pitching coach Cameron Ming described the staff’s identity in terms that fit the season more than this one runaway box score.
“The guys are challenging guys, not afraid of the strike zone, filling it up when they’re behind in count, being fearless.”
— Cameron Ming, Travelers Pitching Coach
On this night, though, the bats did most of the answering. The Naturals had narrowed the game in the top of the fifth. Arkansas responded immediately with the kind of inning that turns a rally into a brief interruption.
Knight was hit by a pitch, Farmelo singled and Smith walked to load the bases for Pagliarini, who yanked a ball toward the right-field wall. Alberto Rodriguez could not get there, and two runs scored as the ball reached the base of the wall. Fitz-Gerald added a sacrifice fly, and a passed ball brought in Pagliarini for an 11-3 lead.
The Travelers had scored in three of five innings and were not done.
Siani singled in the sixth, and Hood followed with the final emphatic swing, a 3-2 drive to left that cleared the wall near the scoreboard. Hood’s 13th homer of the season pushed the lead to 13-4. Farmelo then tripled to center, racing around after a ball dropped in left-center and rolled deep, another piece of a night when the top and middle of the order kept finding grass.
Farmelo went 3-for-5 with a triple, a walk and an RBI. Pagliarini went 3-for-6 with three doubles and three RBIs. Fitz-Gerald reached in four of five plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and two RBIs. Siani added three hits, an RBI, a run and two stolen bases.
The Naturals scored once in the sixth on Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly and once in the eighth on Johnson’s 12th homer, but by then the game had already settled into its final shape: Arkansas had answered every sign of pressure with more traffic and more damage.
Tyler Cleveland handled the eighth, and Teddy McGraw closed it with a scoreless ninth and two strikeouts. The announced crowd of 4,527 saw a three-hour, eight-minute game that belonged mostly to the Travelers’ lineup, which turned a clipped streak into a 13-run response.