NATURALS FALL 11-6 AS ROUGHRIDERS EVEN SERIES

SPRINGDALE, AR – The Northwest Arkansas Naturals fell behind early to the Frisco RoughRiders and could not come back, dropping Friday’s game 11-6, as the series evened with two wins each.

After Frisco struck in the first with an RBI double, Naturals right fielder Tyler Gentry responded in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double of his own to score Luca Tresh and tie the game at 1-1.

The RoughRiders leapt ahead in the second with five runs against Naturals starter Alec Marsh, who surrendered six runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over four innings.

After Marsh kept Frisco scoreless in the third and fourth innings, Northwest Arkansas added two runs in the bottom of the fifth, on a two-run homer from John Rave, the left fielder’s 14th this season with the Naturals.

Charlie Neuweiler cruised through a 1-2-3 fifth inning, but after the Naturals brought the game within three runs, ran into trouble in the sixth and was tagged for five runs, with the RoughRiders jumping out to an 11-3 lead.

Kasey Kalich and C.J. Eldred combined for 3.0 scoreless innings of relief behind Neuweiler, giving the Naturals an opportunity to get back in the game.

Seuly Matias capped a string of four singles in the seventh inning to plate two runs, then Gavin Stupienski singled in a run in the bottom of the ninth to keep the game alive, but the comeback fell short, in the five-run defeat.

Tresh and Rave each collected three hits in the game, while Tresh scored three times and Rave scored twice. As a team, Northwest Arkansas had 12 hits, while drawing two walks.

Anthony Veneziano heads to the mound Saturday for the Naturals, who will try and jump ahead in the series, with a 6:05 p.m. CT first pitch at Arvest Ballpark.