NATURALS BOUNCE BACK BEHIND SPARKMAN

SPRINGDALE, Ark - Behind the right arm of starter Glenn Sparkman , the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (9-17) responded to a loss on Wednesday afternoon with a bounce back 9-2 victory over the Springfield Cardinals (14-11) on Thursday night.
Sparkman (W, 2-2), has been stellar as of late for the Naturals and he continued his dominant form Thursday. The veteran righty fired a season-high 8.0 complete innings and limited Springfield to two runs, one earned, on five hits while striking out two. It was the fourth straight start where he allowed two earned runs or less, which has lowered his ERA to 2.96 on the year.
In the ninth, he gave way to Naturals newcomer RHP Luis Vasquez , whom was signed as a Minor League Free Agent earlier in the day and then assigned to Northwest Arkansas. Vasquez worked a clean ninth in his first appearance to finish the 9-2 win.

Springfield started the scoring with a run in the second courtesy of a RBI double by Blake Drake to score Victor Roache .
The game remained 1-0 in favor of the visitors until the fourth when the Naturals offense erupted for four runs on three hits and took advantage of some mistakes by the Cardinals. Nick Dini led off the frame with a single and moved to second when Elier Hernandez was hit by a pitch. Alex Liddi then delivered a one-out double to plate Dini, which tied up the game. Hernandez would then come in to score on a wild pitch while Liddi would eventually score on a throwing error by Springfield on a Luis Villegas grounder. Jecksson Flores completed the scoring with a run-scoring single to bring home Villegas for the 4-1 lead.
Northwest Arkansas made it 5-1 in the fifth as Nicky Lopez tripled and scored on a Dini single; however, Springfield would get the run back in the sixth as John Nogowski collected his league leading 25^th RBI with a single to left-center field.
Leading 5-2, the Naturals offense would put the game out of reach with another four run outburst in the eighth. Donnie Dewees had a RBI triple and Lopez contributed a run-scoring single. Lopez would eventually score on a wild pitch before Erick Mejia put a cap on the scoring with a sacrifice fly. The offense was good all night as Northwest Arkansas cranked out 13 hits with eight of those hits coming from the trio of Lopez, Dini and Hernandez in the middle of the lineup.
The nine runs were the highest total the Naturals have scored since an 11-6 win at Corpus Christi on Saturday, April 14.
Northwest Arkansas will conclude this 4-game series against the Springfield Cardinals, the Double-A Affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, tomorrow night - Friday, May 4 - with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Gates will open to the public at 6:00 p.m. for Star Wars Night on Fireworks Friday presented by The Northwest Company featuring a Star Wars game worn jersey auction by Grand Lake Casino. The Naturals will send LHP Foster Griffin (2-2, 2.96 ERA) to the mound while the Cardinals have yet to name a starter for the series finale. Catch all the live play-by-play action with the Voice of the Naturals Benjamin Kelly on AM 1590 - The Ticket 2 starting at 6:45 p.m. for the Indigo Sky Casino Pregame Show leading up to first pitch at Arvest Ballpark.
Follow the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Facebook and Twitter @NWANaturals all throughout the year by using the hashtag #NaturalPastime and #CrowntoCrown for all of our up-to-date information on the 2018 season of Naturals baseball.
The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The Naturals play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark. For more information, including statistics, ticket options, and more, please visit NWANaturals.com, and follow us on Twitter @NWANaturals and Facebook.com/Naturals.
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