Springfield, MO – The Arkansas Travelers evened the four-game series at Hammons Field with a 6-0 win against the Springfield Cardinals before 2,474 fans on Wednesday night.
Rehabbing St. Louis Cardinals C Brayan Pena and RHP Seth Maness both continued their assignments with Springfield on Wednesday. Pena served as the designated hitter and worked a walk, while Maness dealt a perfect 1-2-3 top of the seventh, needing only nine pitches in the inning.
The Travelers (24-34) came out swinging, rallying for four runs in the top of the first against RHP Trey Nielsen (L, 5-5). LF Caleb Adams started the game with a leadoff single, followed by a walk from RF Cal Towey to put two men on. 1B Eric Aguilera then sliced an RBI single to left field, bringing in Adams for the game's first run. Following a fly out, DH Jabari Henry lined a three-run homer just over the top of the left field fence, opening the Travelers lead to 4-0.
Nielsen dug in after the opening frame, blanking the Travelers through his next five scoreless frames to keep the Cardinals (31-27) within striking distance. He wrapped up with just the four runs allowed on six hits while striking out five through six innings.
However, Arkansas RHP Jordan Kipper (W, 6-3) kept the Cardinals bats at bay through his seven scoreless stanzas. Kipper wrapped up his outing with a three-batter seventh inning, before Arkansas made it a 6-0 lead with a two-run shot by 1B Eric Aguilera in the eighth.
The Travs then received scoreless relief through the final two innings from the trio of RHP Alan Busenitz (1.0 inning), RHP D.J. Johnson (0.1 inning) and LHP Tyler DeLoach (0.2 inning) to close the 6-0 win for Arkansas.
Click here for the complete box score from Wednesday's game.
