Springfield Cardinals Re-Establish First-Place Residence, Beat Northwest Arkansas Naturals 7-3 - AA, Texas League

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - The Springfield Cardinals took over first place again on Friday night, defeating the Northwest Arkansas Naturals by a score of 7-3 at Hammons Field.  The win for Springfield puts them back in front of Northwest Arkansas by a full game in the North Division.  

Matt Pagnozzi homered to deep left-center field in the bottom of the seventh inning, breaking a 2-2 tie to give Springfield the lead for good.  The Cards would go on to add a few insurance runs, as Allen Craig added a three-run blast to left field and Luke Gorsett ripped a solo homer in the eighth.   The Cards needed the extra runs, as the Naturals made the ninth inning very interesting. 

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Trailing 7-2, the first three Naturals reached base against Cards’ reliever Zack Zuercher.  Closer Luke Gregerson entered the game and struck out Jose Duarte for the first out, then got Angel Sanchez to ground out for the second out.  On the play, Marc Maddox scored to make it a 7-3 game. 

With two on and former Cardinal Juan Richardson in the on-deck circle representing the tying run, Gregerson got Geraldo Valentin looking to earn his fourth save of the year.   

Both starting pitchers threw the ball very well on Friday night.  Cards’ starter Jaime Garcia allowed just one run on five hits over six innings, while Naturals’ lefty Rowdy Hardy gave up two runs, one earned over 5 2/3 innings.    Springfield got an unearned run to take the lead in the third. 

Matt Pagnozzi reached on an error and eventually scored on an RBI groundout from Shane Robinson, making it 1-0.    The Naturals got their only run off of Garcia in the sixth, as Valentin reached with a one-out single, then scored on a Richardson double, tying the game at 1-1.    The Redbirds immediately responded, as Gorsett’s two-out RBI single plated Allen Craig to make it 2-1.  

Bob Zimmermann (1-0) came out of the Springfield bullpen, but couldn’t hold the lead in the seventh.  Ovandy Suero reached on a walk to open the inning, then later scored on a Duarte double, tying the game at 2-2.   

The tie didn’t last long though, as Pagnozzi’s second home run in as many games, a solo shot off of Julio de la Cruz (0-1), put Springfield ahead to stay in the bottom of the inning.   While Jose Martinez extended his hitting streak to ten straight games for Springfield, both Jon Jay (12) and Shane Robinson (8) saw theirs come to an end. 

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