NATURALS SCORE FIRST, BUT DROP THIRD GAME IN SERIES AT WICHITA

WICHITA, KS – After scoring first, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals quickly fell behind to the Wichita Wind Surge and could not mound a comeback, falling 11-3 Saturday night at Riverfront Stadium.

Tucker Bradley and Nick Loftin each drew walks to open the game, then Bradley scored on a Logan Porter sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead in the first.

As soon as Wichita came to bat in the bottom of the first, a home run tied the game, then a sacrifice fly four batters later gave the Wind Surge a lead that kept them ahead the rest of the night.

Starting pitcher Alec Marsh pitched through 5.0 innings but allowed runs in each of the first four frames, as Wichita tagged the right-hander for seven runs on 10 hits in his 10th loss of the year.

Northwest Arkansas did not get its first hit until the sixth inning, then Tyler Gentry singled with two outs. The only other hits in the ballgame were a single from Sebastian Rivero in the seventh and Loftin in the eighth.

After the Wind Surge scored four times in the sixth off of Will Klein, the Naturals showed fight, with a run in the seventh as Seuly Matias scored on a Jake Means groundout, then Bradley came across in the eighth on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Porter.

Asa Lacy pitched the final two innings of the game, allowing just one batter to reach on a hit by pitch, otherwise striking out three in his second straight two-inning scoreless outing.

The Naturals will fight for a series split Sunday afternoon at Riverfront Stadium, as Andrew Hoffmann heads to the mound at 1:05 p.m. CT.