Arkansas Takes 4th Straight Behind Casteel, DeFratus

Casteel homers and drives in four, DeFratus earns win on mound

(Mark Wagner; Mark Wagner)

July 21, 2017

North Little Rock, AR-A complete team effort led the Arkansas Travelers to their fourth consecutive victory, a 6-3 win over the Springfield Cardinals on Thursday night. The Traveler win also snapped a seven game winning streak for Springfield.               Early in the game, the Travs built a six-run lead. They got

North Little Rock, AR-A complete team effort led the Arkansas Travelers to their fourth consecutive victory, a 6-3 win over the Springfield Cardinals on Thursday night. The Traveler win also snapped a seven game winning streak for Springfield.
               Early in the game, the Travs built a six-run lead. They got on the board in the second inning banging out four hits including an RBI single from Ryan Casteel and an RBI double from Ian Miller. Then in the third with two out and no one on, Tyler Marlette and Kyle Waldrop came up with base hits before Casteel launched a three-run bomb to left field. All of those runs came against the Cardinal starter Austin Gomber. Arkansas then tacked on a run in the fourth against reliever Pedro Echemendia on doubles by Seth Mejias-Brean and Marlette.
               On the mound, Justin DeFratus was cruising. After not allowing a run until the seventh against Springfield five days ago, he did the same thing again in this game. With six zeroes on the board, he was touched for a run on three singles in the seventh but no more as Tyler Knigge recorded the final two outs. Springfield did get a pair of runs in the eighth and had the tying run at home plate but Ryan Kelly recorded a strikeout to end the inning. Kelly returned for the ninth and worked around an error and a single to finish it out.
               DeFratus earned his first win in more than a month improving to 3-5 on the season while Kelly collected the save in his Travs debut. Gomber was the loser for the Cards and saw his record fall to 4-7.
               Marlette, Waldrop, Casteel and Marcus Littlewood all posted two hits for Arkansas with Casteel matching a season-high with his four RBIs.
               The Travelers will try to stretch the winning streak to five on Friday night. Righty Brett Ash (5-9, 7.06) gets the start against righty Zac Gallen (2-2, 2.35). First pitch is at 7:10 and the first 1000 fans through the gates receive a pair of Travs sunglasses. The game will also be broadcast on the Sports Animal 920, the First Pitch App, TuneIn radio and milb.tv.