LOS NATURALES TOP ROUGHRIDERS 7-5

SPRINGDALE, AR – Los Naturales del Noroeste de Arkansas battled back-and-forth with the FriscoRoughers but came out ahead in the second half of the game with four unanswered runs to win, 7-5 Saturday night.

Each time Frisco scored, Northwest Arkansas had a counter. The RoughRiders scored twice in the second, then los Naturales responded with a run on a bases-loaded double play from Tyler Cropley to get within one.

While the RoughRiders scored twice in the fourth, los Naturales countered in the bottom half, with a two-run single off the bat of Angelo Castellano to tie the game.

Two Frisco runs in the top of the fifth put the RoughRiders ahead once again, but los Naturales scored three in the bottom half, on a game-tying two-run homer from shortstop Jeison Guzmán, followed by a go-ahead RBI single from Cropley.

Tyler Gentry capped his 3-for-4 night at the plate with a run of insurance in the eighth, doubling the lead with an RBI single.

Castellano also contributed a two-hit game, going 2-for-4, while Seuly Matias reached three times, with two walks and a hit-by-pitch.

Starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano (6-9) earned his sixth win of the year, allowing just three earned runs over 5.0 innings, while striking out four in his final start of the year.

Behind Veneziano, the Northwest Arkansas bullpen fired 4.0 scoreless innings, 2.0 scoreless frames from Stephen Woods Jr. followed by 1-2-3 eighth and ninth innings from Nate Webb and Walter Pennington, with Pennington securing his second save of the year. Between Woods Jr., Webb and Pennington, the final eight batters of the night were retired and Naturales pitching faced the minimum from the final two outs of the sixth through the end of the game.

Adrian Alcantara heads to the mound Sunday for Northwest Arkansas, as the team tries to win its first home series of the year on the last day of the season.