NATURALS AND MATIAS WALK OFF ON 4TH OF JULY

SPRINGDALE, AR – After trading leads several times throughout the night, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals pulled away for good in the tenth on Independence Day on Monday, beating the Tulsa Drillers 7-6 in 10 innings on walk-off single from Seuly Matias.

After Tulsa took a 2-0 lead in the first, Northwest Arkansas stormed ahead in the third, as Logan Porter singled in a run and John Rave singled in two for a 3-2 lead.

The Drillers tied the game in the fifth and took a lead in the top of the sixth, but the Naturals countered in the bottom of the sixth and tied the game back up, as Matias scored on a wild pitch and Tyler Cropley connected on his first home run of the season.

In the seventh, Robbie Glendinning singled home Nick Loftin for a 6-5 lead, but down to their final strike in the ninth, the Drillers tied the game with a home run, forcing the Naturals into extras.

Eric Skoglund took the mound in the top of the 10th, and stranded the placed runner on second base, retiring all three Drillers hitters he faced.

With Rave beginning the bottom of the 10th inning on second as the placed runner, Matias wasted no time bringing him home, as the Naturals right fielder lined a ball to right-center field, his second walk-off hit of the season to score Rave from second base.

All seven runs in the game were scored by different Natuarls hitters, all seven recording at least one hit, including four two-hit performances.

After starter Alec Marsh struck out seven across 5.1 innings, where he allowed four runs, the Naturals bullpen did its best to keep the game close. Walter Pennington was tagged for a home run as soon as he entered the game in relief of Marsh, then settled down to throw 2.0 innings on just the one run.

Jonah Dipoto took over for Pennington, looking for a five-out save and retired four straight, including three on strikeouts, before surrendering the game-tying home run.

Matias, after his single in the 10th and walk-off home run in early June, is now the 11th player in Naturals history to produce two walk-off hits in one season, the last being Emmanuel Rivera in 2019.

After an off day Tuesday, the Natuarls return to action Wednesday a 7:05 p.m. CT, with Angel Zerpa starting against the Drillers at Arvest Ballpark.