GOMEZ HALTS THE STREAK, NATURALS BEAT TRAVELERS, 2-1

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - For the second straight, the Naturals' starting pitcher stepped up. The only difference on Wednesday afternoon was the bats did too. Right-hander, Ofreidy Gomez twirled a quality start in seven shutout frames and the Naturals offense plated a pair of early runs to salvage the finale against the Arkansas Travelers, 2-1 at Dickey-Stephens Park. The victory snapped the club's nine-game losing skid.
Before Gomez even threw a pitch, he had a lead. Nick Heath and DJ Burt sparked the offense with back-to-back singles to start the ballgame against Travelers' starter, Zac Grotz . The third hitting of the game, Khalil Lee , stood at the plate as Heath and Burt broke on a double-steal, Lee pounded a hard ground-ball past the third baseman, Joe DeCarlo , who vacated his position to cover the bag.
The base-hit brought home Heath from second and Burt came home to score following a throwing error on the back-end of the play by left-fielder, Kyle Lewis , giving the Naturals a 2-0 lead three batters into the contest. The two runs snapped a 20-inning scoreless drought for the Naturals, the club's longest since Northwest Arkansas went 25.1 innings in June, 2016.

The two tallies were all 23-year old Gomez needed. The right-hander, worked around a one-out walk in the first inning and proceeded to retire 11 consecutive batters. Gomez (1-0, 3.94 ERA) finished his outing strong, retiring the last seven straight, including Jordan Cowen looking to conclude the seventh.
Gomez finished seven innings for the 10^th time in his career, matching his career-high. He fanned seven batters, walked one, hit one batter and scatter just two hits. The right-hander carried a no-hit bid into the fifth inning with two-outs before Joseph Odom broke it up with a single to left.
Arkansas got its lone run off reliever, Franco Terrero in the eighth inning on a run-scoring ground out. Left-hander, Gabe Speier notched his first save of the season with a 10-pitch ninth inning. It's the first save for the left-hander since May, 2018 while still pitching in Arizona's system.
Moments that mattered…
Gomez got into one jam in the fifth inning. After allowing a base hit to Odom to lose his no-hit bid, Aaron Knapp smacked a single to load the bases. Gomez began the inning by hitting a batter. The right-hander stood tall and struck out lead-off hitter, Jake Fraley on a 1-2 breaking ball to keep the 2-0 lead for the Naturals.
Gomez had just two three-ball counts on the 25 batters he faced in the start.
Burt extended his hitting streak to seven games with his single in the second inning, the longest active streak by any Naturals to date.
The eight hits in the finale are more than the Naturals had in the first two games of the series (5) combined.
What's up next…
Northwest Arkansas (5-9) heads home for a brief three-game homestand against the Springfield Cardinals (St. Louis Cardinals), starting Thursday, April 19 with a 7:05 games. Left-hander, Jake Kalish (0-0, 1.00 ERA) takes the baseball for the Naturals for the second straight start and four outing on the season. Right-hander, Andres Sotillet (0-0, 0.82 ERA) is scheduled to piggy-back the start following Kalish. Sotillet's last outing on Saturday, April 13 at Springfield, he pitched six innings of no-hit baseball in relief.
Right-hander, Conner Greene (1-0, 2.12 ERA) is slated to pitch Friday night and Major League rehab, Danny Duffy will pitch Saturday for the Naturals.
Join, Benjamin Kelly, on 92.1-FM, the Ticket and across the Naturals' Radio Network for a 6:45 p.m. Indigo Sky Casino Pregame Show leading up to the Thursday night ballgame.