Jonny Farmelo helped fuel Arkansas’ biggest inning with a ground ball that found a way through, then finished the early barrage by lifting his fourth home run of the season to right field. By the end of the third inning, the Travelers had a six-run lead and Farmelo had driven in five of their eight runs.
That cushion proved sturdy enough through Springfield’s steady attempts to cut into it, and Arkansas pulled away again in the ninth for an 11-5 victory Saturday at Route 66 Stadium.
Farmelo went 2-for-5 with the homer and five RBIs, powering a 14-hit attack that did most of its damage in two early innings. The Travelers scored five times in the second and three in the third, leaving the Cardinals to spend the rest of the night trying to climb back from an 8-1 deficit.
The decisive burst came against Springfield starter Braden Davis, who allowed five earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. Sammy Siani singled to begin the second-inning threat, and Connor Charping followed with another single before Josh Hood replaced him at first on a force out.
Farmelo then grounded a two-run single to first, bringing home Siani and Hood. Charlie Pagliarini walked, and Hunter Fitz-Gerald’s ground-ball single to left scored Farmelo and Pagliarini, with an error by Josiah Ragsdale helping the play along. Boston Smith followed with a sharp RBI double to left for a 5-0 lead.
Springfield answered with Ian Petrutz’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning, but Arkansas immediately put the game at a much safer distance. With two outs in the third, Charping doubled to right and Hood walked. Farmelo followed with a three-run fly over the wall in right, stretching the lead to 8-1 and completing his five-RBI night.
Charping finished 2-for-4 with his 13th double and a run. Fitz-Gerald reached four times, going 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, while Smith’s second-inning double supplied another extra-base hit in a lineup that kept producing traffic.
Ryan Sloan held Springfield to two earned runs over four innings, striking out four and walking two. The Cardinals scored against him in the second and third but failed to turn several other baserunners into a sustained rally. In the fourth, Sloan escaped after Tre Richardson III reached third, getting Tai Peete to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Springfield’s best push came after Sloan departed. The Cardinals scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, gradually reducing Arkansas’ advantage to 8-5.
The fifth-inning run came with an immediate answer from the Travelers’ defense. Deniel Ortiz singled to center to score Ragsdale, but Farmelo threw to catcher Josh Caron, whose relay to shortstop Hood caught Ortiz trying for second. The run counted; the rally did not continue.
Conor Larkin allowed two earned runs in 1 2/3 innings but earned the win, improving to 1-2. Tyler Cleveland recorded the final out of the sixth before Rainiel Rodriguez hit a solo homer off him in the seventh, bringing Springfield within three.
That was as close as the Cardinals came. Teddy McGraw took over in the eighth and worked two scoreless innings, striking out two without a walk to earn his second save. He erased a leadoff single in the eighth with a double-play grounder, then retired Springfield in order in the ninth.
Arkansas made the final inning considerably more comfortable. Fitz-Gerald walked, Smith reached on an error and Caron lined his second double of the night to left, scoring both runners. Caron then came home when Ortiz’s throw after catching Caleb Cali’s foul pop went awry.
Caron finished 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and two RBIs. The Cardinals committed four errors, including two during Arkansas’ three-run ninth, while the Travelers closed the night with an emphatic second burst to match the one Farmelo had helped fuel hours earlier.