By the time Sam Kulasingam lined his sixth hit into right field in the ninth inning Sunday, the night had outgrown any ordinary description of a rout. Two runners raced home, Kulasingam matched the Northwest Arkansas record for hits in a game and his RBI total reached a franchise-best eight.
The Naturals still were not finished.
Connor Scott later launched a three-run homer to right, pushing Northwest Arkansas past another club mark and punctuating a 24-4 demolition of the Arkansas Travelers at Dickey-Stephens Park. The Naturals finished with franchise records for runs and hits, piling up 29 of them in an offensive performance that began immediately and somehow kept expanding.
Kulasingam went 6-for-7 with two home runs. Justin Johnson went 5-for-6 with a homer, a double and five RBI, while Scott added three hits and four RBI. Every starter in the Northwest Arkansas lineup had at least one hit.
The first inning offered an early warning. Luke Pelzer and Javier Vaz opened with singles, with Vaz driving in Pelzer, before Kulasingam collected the first of his six hits. Spencer Nivens then drove a ball toward the right-field wall, where it landed in front of the fence and bounced over for a ground-rule double. Two more productive outs completed a four-run inning.
Pelzer doubled and scored on a Kulasingam single in the second, stretching the advantage to 5-0. The third inning removed what little suspense remained.
Scott and Johnson opened it with doubles, Angel Acosta brought Johnson home on a sacrifice fly, and Pelzer singled before Vaz walked. Arkansas turned to Ty Cummings, whose first batter was Kulasingam. The Naturals right fielder sent a drive carrying toward right-center, beyond the retreating Sammy Siani and over the wall for a three-run homer that made it 10-0.
It was Kulasingam’s 11th homer of the season. Johnson’s two-run single later in the inning finished a seven-run surge and gave Northwest Arkansas a 12-0 lead after three.
Arkansas got two runs back on Siani’s homer in the fourth, but the Naturals continued adding on. Hyungchan Um delivered an RBI single in the fifth, and a Travelers error brought home another run in the sixth.
Kulasingam followed that error with another towering drive to right. Siani tracked it toward the fence but could only watch it disappear, Kulasingam’s second homer of the game and his 12th of the season. The two-run shot made it 16-2 and gave Kulasingam seven RBI through six innings in the first multi-homer game of his professional career.
Felix Arronde allowed Siani’s second homer during Arkansas’ two-run sixth but prevented the Travelers from getting any closer. Arronde earned the win after allowing four earned runs across five innings.
The pitching around him kept the runaway orderly. Steven Zobac retired all six batters he faced, striking out four over two scoreless innings. Tyson Guerrero handled the final two frames without allowing a run and struck out two. Northwest Arkansas played error-free defense while Arkansas committed two errors.
The Naturals went scoreless in the seventh and eighth before turning an overwhelming lead into a record book rewrite in the ninth.
Johnson started the scoring in the eight-run inning by driving a ball toward the video board in left-center for his 13th homer and fourth hit of the night. Um doubled and later scored on Pelzer’s sacrifice fly. With Acosta and Vaz aboard, Kulasingam lined a single to right and brought both home, tying the club’s single-game hits record and setting its RBI mark.
Daniel Vazquez added an RBI double before Scott supplied the exclamation point. He lifted a drive to right, sending Siani back to the track once more. The ball cleared the fence for Scott’s 11th homer, bringing home the runs that lifted the Naturals to their franchise-record total of 24.
Johnson even added another single before the inning ended, helping Northwest Arkansas finish with 29 hits. Pelzer contributed four hits, four runs and an RBI, part of a lineup-wide barrage built around a record night from Kulasingam.