Springfield Rallies Late to Stun Travs

North Little Rock, AR-A late rally by the Springfield Cardinals led them to a 6-1 win over the Arkansas Travelers on Saturday night.
               The Travs led by a run going to the seventh inning but Springfield tied the game on a pair of two out hits sandwiched around a wild pitch. Jacob Wilson's single brought home the tying run. It spoiled a stellar outing by starter Justin DeFratus who pitched the first seven frames, allowing only that tally on five hits while striking out three.
               Springfield then exploded in the eighth scoring three times on four base hits and a walk. Oscar Mercado doubled to open the inning and then Bruce Caldwell singled to score him and put the Cards on top. Later, with two out and the bases loaded, Gabriel Lino smacked a ground-rule double to push their lead to three. Those runs came against Blake Perry (1-3) who took the loss. The Cardinals would then add two more runs in the ninth off of Thyago Vieira on three hits and an error.
               Arkansas scored their lone run in the third. After loading the bases with no out, Seth Mejias-Brean hit a one out sacrifice fly to score Jeff Kobernus. The seventh inning saw the Travs have a chance to retake the lead but with two men aboard Tyler Bray (4-0) induced Kobernus to hit into a double play to end the threat. Bray ended up as the winning pitcher for Springfield.
               A four game roadtrip for the Travs begins on Sunday night in Tulsa with a 7:05 first pitch. Right-hander Brett Ash (5-8, 6.52) starts against righty Eddie Gamboa (0-0, 0.00) for the Drillers. The game will be broadcast on the Sports Animal 920, the First Pitch App, TuneIn radio and milb.tv.