A diving stop, a dropped throw, an aggressive turn around third and a ground ball rolling past an outfielder — Springfield’s final regular-season night game came apart in a hurry Saturday night at Route 66 Stadium.
Arkansas scored five runs in the second inning against Braden Davis, added three more in the third against José Davila and ended the Cardinals’ eight-game winning streak with an 11-5 victory. Springfield spent the rest of the night cutting into an 8-1 deficit, getting as close as three runs before the Travelers pulled away in the ninth.
The Cardinals committed four errors, two during the decisive second inning.
Davis had already allowed two singles before getting Josh Hood on a forceout for the inning’s second out. Jonny Farmelo followed with a ground ball to the right side. Deniel Ortiz made a diving stop and threw to Davis covering first, but Davis could not hold the ball. Sammy Siani scored from third, and Hood never slowed as he rounded the bag behind him, sliding home without a play.
What looked like a chance to escape the inning had instead become a two-run infield single.
Charlie Pagliarini walked before Hunter Fitz-Gerald grounded a single into left. Farmelo scored, and Pagliarini followed when Josiah Ragsdale overran the ball. Boston Smith’s two-out double brought home Fitz-Gerald and finished Davis’ outing after 1 2/3 innings.
Davis allowed five earned runs, struck out three and walked one in his final regular-season start.
Springfield answered with Ian Petrutz’s RBI single in the bottom of the second, but Arkansas delivered the game’s biggest swing an inning later. With two outs, Connor Charping doubled and Hood walked against Davila. Farmelo then lifted a drive toward the wall in right, where Petrutz could only watch it clear the fence.
The three-run homer gave Farmelo five RBIs and pushed the Travelers’ lead to 8-1. He finished 2-for-5.
Davila allowed three earned runs in 1 2/3 innings, leaving Springfield’s pitching staff to cover the middle of the game while the lineup tried to make the rout competitive. Domenic Picone, Christian Worley and Nolan Sparks did exactly that, combining for 4 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Cardinals’ comeback arrived one run at a time. Ortiz drove in Rainiel Rodriguez with a groundout in the third, then singled home Ragsdale in the fifth before being thrown out trying to advance to second. Ortiz finished with two RBIs.
Cade McGee supplied Springfield’s steadiest offense. He opened the sixth by sending a fly ball deep into the left-center gap. Charping reached for it near the track but could not make the play, and the ball rolled along the base of the wall while McGee raced into third. Tre Richardson III singled him home immediately, trimming the deficit to 8-4.
McGee went 3-for-4 with a triple and a run scored, accounting for three of Springfield’s 11 hits.
Rodriguez brought the Cardinals closest in the seventh. He attacked Tyler Cleveland’s first pitch and sent a low line drive over the wall in left-center. Rodriguez pounded his chest as he rounded the bases after his 23rd Double-A home run, which made it 8-5.
He finished 2-for-5, but Springfield did not put another runner on after McGee’s leadoff single in the eighth was erased by a double play.
Arkansas finally stopped the Cardinals’ gradual climb in the ninth. Fitz-Gerald walked, Smith reached on an error by McGee and Josh Caron lined a two-run double into left. Caron later scored when Ortiz’s throw following a foul pop sailed away, completing a three-run inning and the game’s final margin.
Caron finished 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and two RBIs. By then, Springfield’s early five-run unraveling had become too much to repair, and its eight-game run was over.