Pitching Carries RockHounds in Series Win Over Arkansas

RockHounds 2, Arkansas Travelers 1
Thursday, July 18, 2019                                                                    
Dickey-Stephens Park                                                                             North Little Rock, Arkansas         
                                        
The RockHounds faced the league's best club (by far), the Arkansas Travelers, in a three-game series that concluded Thursday night in North Little Rock. In the three games, the 'Hounds scored a total of six runs on 11 hits … and they won the series, 2-games-to-1.
Thursday's finale was a virtual replay of Tuesday's 2-0 win, with the RockHounds breaking a scoreless tie late.
Cooper Goldby led off the eighth inning with a walk and Mickey McDonald dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt. One out later, Taylor Motter singled to shallow right-center, scoring Goldby for the game's first run.
The 'Hounds added what would be the winning run in the ninth and did it in familiar fashion (see "Notable," below). Dan Gamache drew the third of his three walks, reaching with one out. Brallan Perez was hit by a pitch and a passed ball charged to Arkansas catcher Cal Raleigh proved critical, pushing the runners to second and third. Nate Mondou then lifted a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Gamache.
Arkansas rallied back in the ninth, scoring on three singles, the last off the bat of Joseph Odom, driving in Dom Thompson-Williams to cut the 'Hounds' lead to 2-1 with just one out. Zack Erwin then struck out Logan Taylor and got Jordan Cowan to ground out to shortstop Edwin Diaz to end the game.
Justin Dunn, a top five prospect for the Seattle Mariners, went seven scoreless innings for Arkansas and the RockHounds countered with seven scoreless frames from Grant Holmes (five innings, see below) and Angel Duno (sixth and seventh). Erwin pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, then gave up a run for just the third time in his last 21 outings before slamming the door for his fifth save.
Texas League South Division
Springfield, which entered its series at Amarillo with a 12-35 road record, took 2-of-3 from the Sod Poodles in the Panhandle. The Cardinals saw an 8-3 lead evaporate Thursday night but broke a 9-9 tie in the top of the ninth to defeat the Sod Poodles, 10-9. The other three South Division clubs posted wins Thursday. In addition to the 'Hounds, Corpus Christi defeated Northwest Arkansas, 5-3, at "the beach" and Frisco downed the Drillers, 4-2, at Tulsa.
The RockHounds (15-12) lead Amarillo (14-13) by one game … Corpus Christi Hooks (13-14) by two … and Frisco (10-16) by 4½ games.
Notable
In their two wins (2-0 and 2-1), the RockHounds scored three of their four runs on the top of the ninth inning. They scored without benefit of a hit or error and put the ball in play just once (Nate Mondou's sac fly Thursday). The rest of the offense was the result of four walks and three hit batsmen.
Chase Calabuig has hit in 10 consecutive games (13-38, .342) with eight runs, five doubles, a home run and nine RBI.
Grant Holmes went five innings for the first time since August of 2017. His previous high for this season was four innings, which he did on three occasions. Grant threw 66 pitches Thursday night, 46 for strikes.
Next Game
Friday, July 19 vs. Tulsa Drillers
ONEOK Field Tulsa, Oklahoma         
First pitch 7:05 p.m.   
- First of a three-game series and fourth of a seven-game road trip
- Radio: NewsTalk 550 with Bob Hards ... airtime 7:00 p.m.
Probable Starters                                                             
TUL:                     Edwin Uceta         (RH,    1-2, 5.00)
RH: Daulton Jefferies           (RH,     0-1, 4.11) tandem with Norge Ruiz (RH, 0-1, 2.57)