Naturals Take Series Opener at DSP

North Little Rock, AR-The Arkansas Travelers dropped the opener of their four game series to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, 6-2 on Monday night.
               The Naturals jumped out quick with a three run first inning off Travs starter Lindsey Caughel and added another run in the fourth before the Travs got on the board. Caughel would settle in and go on to pitch seven innings on the night, matching his longest outing of the season.
               Arkansas' offense would try to claw back in the game with single tallies in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, they loaded the bases and got their run when Kyle Waldrop raced home on a wild pitch. Then in the fifth, Ian Miller blasted his second homerun of the season (only the third of his career) to cut the deficit to two. But that was as close as the Travs would get.
               All night, they struggled to hit in key situations and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Northwest Arkansas would then tack on runs in the eighth and ninth innings for the final 6-2 score.
               Ashton Goudeau (2-2) pitched 4 innings of one-run ball out of Naturals bullpen for the win, with Sam Selman notching the last four outs to earn his first save. Caughel, despite working deep into the game, was tagged with the loss and drops to 2-4.
  Ian Miller was 3-5 for Arkansas with his homerun, while Chuck Taylor went 1-4 and extended his hitting streak to 17 in a row.
  The Travs try again Tuesday night for their first win of the year over the Naturals. It is Baseball Bingo and a Zoosday Tuesday at Dickey-Stephens Park. First pitch is slated for 7:10 as the Travs send right-hander Max Povse (3-1, 3.51) to the hill opposing righty Zach Lovvorn (2-3, 4.26) for the Naturals. The game will also be broadcast on the Sports Animal 920, the First Pitch App, TuneIn radio and milb.tv.