NATURALS NINTH IN RALLY FALLS SHORT AGAIN TO SODDIES

AMARILLO, TX – For the second straight night, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals entered the ninth inning trailing by five runs, scored four times and put the tying run on third with two outs, but once again the team could not pull out the victory, dropping Saturday night's game to the Amarillo Sod Poodles, 13-12.

For the first time this week, the Naturals did not score first, instead the Sod Poodles jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one inning. However, Northwest Arkansas slowly chipped away at the deficit, eventually tying the game up.

In the second inning, Maikel Garcia singled home a run, then Robbie Glendinning dropped a two-run homer in the third, his third straight game with a homer and his 11th of the season.

After Amarillo added a run in the third inning, Northwest Arkansas scored three in the fourth to get within two runs, on RBI doubles from Nick Loftin and Tyler Gentry, and an RBI groundout from Seuly Matias that brought the club within a run.

The Sod Poodles scored for the fourth straight inning with a home run in the fourth, but Garcia homered in the fifth to bring the Naturals within one and Matias tied the game in the sixth with an RBI double.

While the Sod Poodles scored a run to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth and scored four runs of insurance in the seventh, the Naturals refused to give up in the ninth.

Down by five runs and with three outs to work with, Logan Porter and Matias opened the ninth inning with back-to-back singles, then Jake Means drove Porter home with a double. Pinch-hitter Tucker Bradley walked to load the bases, then pinch-hitter John Rave brought home a run on what would have been an sacrifice fly, instead reaching on a dropped catch error from Amarillo's left fielder.

Still with no outs and only down by three runs, Garcia flied a ball to center field to bring home the inning's. third run, though Rave was forced out at second. After Loftin walked, Gentry stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and flied out to the wall in right field, scoring Bradley from third to bring the Naturals within a run. However, Garcia was stranded on third base to end the game as the tying run, while Loftin was stranded on second as the go-ahead run.

The loss marked the Naturals' third straight by one run, dropping the team to 3-16 in one-run games this season. It was the fourth time this year in seven losses to Amarillo that Northwest Arkansas has scored four runs in the last inning and still lost the game, all by one run.

The Naturals will try and rebound Sunday at 6:05 p.m. CT as Dante Biasi returns to the mound at in Amarillo.