Travs Hold off Missions' rally to Clinch Series
San Antonio's comeback attempt fell just short as they fell to Arkansas 5-4 before a big Saturday night crowd of 7,274 at Wolff Stadium.
Saturday was Star Wars Night at the Wolff and featured a highly anticipated pitching matchup between San Antonio's Bryan Rodriguez and Arkansas' Albert Suarez. The two hurlers squared off last Sunday in North Little Rock, with Rodriguez outdueling Suarez in a 1-0 Missions' win. On Saturday, however, Rodriguez was not as sharp.
Arkansas plated the game's first runs in the second courtesy of a two-run single by Blake Gailen.
An inning later, the Travs opened up a commanding 5-0 lead on Rodriguez (6-12) with a three-run rally capped by a Cal Towey RBI single.
For awhile, the five runs appeared to be more than enough for Arkansas. Suarez (9-9) allowed just two runs on five hits and no walks, while fanning four over his six innings. Both of the runs came in the sixth on a Benji Gonzalez single and a Duanel Jones sacrifice fly.
Reliever Kyle Winkler subdued the San Antonio comeback when he followed Suarez with two scoreless innings.
However, in the bottom of the ninth, the Missions made it very interesting against closer Danny Reynolds. With two runners on and two outs, Taylor Lindsey belted a ball deep to right that for a moment looked like a game-tying three-run homer. However, the ball fell just short of the wall, giving Lindsey a double and scoring both runners to trim the deficit to just one. Unfortunately, for San Antonio, that's as close as they would get, as Reynolds (9th save) fanned next batter Adolfo Reina to end the game.
San Antonio (24-31, 55-70) wraps up its three-game series against Arkansas (28-27, 64-60) Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 PM. The first 500 kids 12 & under will receive a free Missions' thermal lunch bag courtesy of Kellogg's. Ronald Herrera (3-0, 3.77) will get the ball for the Missions, while the Travs counter with fellow righty Chris Ellis (5-3, 3.86).