Daniel Eagen kept piling up strikeouts at Route 66 Stadium, even after Arkansas briefly knocked him off course. By the time his night ended, Springfield’s offense had supplied three home runs, a seven-run cushion and enough support to withstand one late jolt.
Eagen struck out 11 over 5 2/3 innings, and the Cardinals rallied from an early deficit to beat the Travelers 10-7 on Tuesday. The right-hander allowed three earned runs and one walk, improving to 8-11.
His dominance showed immediately. Eagen struck out Jonny Farmelo, Boston Smith and Charlie Pagliarini in order to open the game, establishing the rhythm of a start in which eight of Arkansas’ first 11 outs came by strikeout.
The Travelers still landed the first big swing. Hunter Fitz-Gerald doubled in the second, and after Eagen struck out Josh Caron, Caleb Cali drove a slider over the left-field wall. The 419-foot home run left the bat at 105 mph and gave Arkansas a 2-0 lead.
Springfield’s response was immediate and emphatic. Ryan Campos and Cade McGee opened the bottom of the inning with line-drive singles before Ian Petrutz sent a fly ball beyond the center-field wall. Petrutz’s second homer of the season turned the two-run deficit into a 3-2 Cardinals lead.
They never trailed again.
The middle of the Springfield order kept pressing against Will Armbruester in the third. Deniel Ortiz singled, Campos followed with another hit, and McGee lined a two-run double into the left-field corner. Campos scored standing as McGee reached second, giving the second baseman two hits and two RBIs in his Route 66 Stadium debut.
McGee finished 2-for-4. Campos also went 2-for-4 and scored twice, part of a 12-hit Springfield attack that produced runs in four different innings.
Pagliarini trimmed the lead to 5-3 with a solo homer in the fourth, but Eagen responded by striking out Fitz-Gerald and Cali around a Caron walk. Springfield restored the three-run margin in the bottom half when Luis Pino collected his first Springfield hit and scored on Jesús Báez’s sacrifice fly.
Eagen worked around two singles in the fifth by striking out Smith and Pagliarini. He recorded two outs in the sixth before Chen-Wei Lin took over with Cali aboard on an error. Lin allowed a Siani single, then retired Josh Hood to preserve the 6-3 lead.
Springfield broke the game open in the seventh. Rainiel Rodriguez and Báez were hit by pitches, and Jack Gurevitch drove a three-run line-drive homer to left off Marcelo Perez. Ortiz followed with a fly ball over the wall in left-center, extending the lead to 10-3.
Gurevitch’s sixth homer gave him three RBIs. Ortiz’s 10th completed a 2-for-4 night in which he scored twice, and the Cardinals appeared to have removed any remaining suspense.
Arkansas found some anyway.
Fitz-Gerald singled to begin the eighth, Caron doubled and Cali walked, loading the bases against Lin with nobody out. Siani cleared them with a grand slam to right-center, accounting for four of the Travelers’ seven runs and cutting Springfield’s lead to 10-7.
Lin stopped the inning there. He retired the next two batters, hit Farmelo, then induced a groundout from Smith. In the ninth, Lin set down Pagliarini before striking out Fitz-Gerald and Caron to finish the final 3 1/3 innings and earn his third save.
What had become comfortable turned tense, but the shape of Springfield’s victory held: Eagen supplied the strikeouts, and three Cardinals supplied the home-run power to make them count.