Offense Shut Down in 4-1 Loss

North Little Rock, AR-Behind a strong pitching effort, the Springfield Cardinals shut down the Arkansas Travelers on Friday night, 4-1.
               Springfield starter Chris Ellis, a Traveler in 2015, delivered his best outing of the season firing six scoreless innings with six strikeouts. Ellis and relievers Corey Littrell and Dailyn Martinez carried a shutout into the ninth inning before a late tally by the Travs.
               Arkansas' best scoring opportunity came in the seventh inning. Trailing by two runs, the Travs loaded the bases on a Marcus Littlewood single, Nelson Ward walk and an Adam Law bunt single. Card lefty Corey Littrell would get out of it though with a force out at the plate, a strikeout and a groundout. Springfield came back to tack on a pair of runs in the eighth and seize full control of the game.
               The Cardinals took an early lead with single runs in the third and fourth. Darren Seferina hit his first Double-A homer to get them on the board. Then an inning later, Tommy Edman ripped a two out hit scoring Andrew Knizner who had doubled. Those runs came against starter Lindsey Caughel (6-8) who took the loss while giving up two runs on four hits over five innings.
               Law had a three hit game including a pair of doubles and scored the lone run while Seth Mejias-Brean notched two hits.
               The Travs try for a split of the four game series on Saturday night as right-hander Justin DeFratus (2-5, 5.81) takes the hill against lefty Austin Gomber (4-6, 4.39). First pitch is at 6:10 and the first 1000 fans get a Travelers tumbler. The game will also be broadcast on the Sports Animal 920, the First Pitch App, TuneIn radio and milb.tv.