Northwest Arkansas Naturals Slide into 8-1 Loss Versus Springfield Cardinals - AA, Texas League

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - Springdale , AR - Northwest Arkansas Naturals and Springfield Cardinals staved off the severe weather long enough to get in six and half innings to make Wednesday’s game official. The Naturals fell to the Cardinals by the score of 8-1 in front of a paid crowd of 3,756 at Arvest Ballpark. The loss snapped the Naturals’ eight game home winning streak.

The Cardinals (17-16) managed to get on the board first in the third inning, when Shane Robinson singled, scoring Andy Van Slyke Jr. The Cards then put up a five spot in the fourth, and to top things off they hit for the cycle in the inning. Allen Craig led off the inning with a rocket shot that landed on the left field concourse. Tyler Greene’s RBI double scored Mark Hamilton, who himself had doubled. Brandon Yarbrough hit an RBI single and to finish the cycle off, former Razorback Casey Rowlett tripled in a run. The Cards put up two more runs in the seventh when Allen Craig hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot coming minutes before torrential rains washed the game away.

The Naturals (16-17) scored their only run in the sixth, when Adam Donachie reached on a fielding error, scoring Marc Maddox.

Another former Hog, Jess Todd was making his first Texas League start of the season for the Springfield Cardinals after recently being promoted from Advanced-A Palm Beach. He was limited to 70 pitches and tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings. He gave up two hits, while striking out six batters and walking three. Nick Webber (3-1) relieved and picked up the victory, tossing the final 2 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on two hits, while walking two.

Because of Springfield ’s big inning in the fourth, Naturals’ starter Rowdy Hardy (0-3) had a tough outing, picking up the loss. He gave up seven runs on 10 hits while striking out two.

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