Frisco Wins In San Antonio
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SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – A strong outing from left-hander Andrew Faulkner cooled the bats of the San Antonio Missions and reinforced a 3-1 victory for the Frisco RoughRiders on Saturday night at Wolff Stadium.
The game made a winner of Faulkner (1-0), who tossed six innings and allowed one run on four hits in his first Double-A victory. The lefty from Aiken, South Carolina struck out eight batters and did not surrender a walk.
The ‘Riders reached base early and often against San Antonio starter Justin Hancock, but struggled to bring runs across home plate (five men stranded over the first two innings).
That changed in the third when J.T. Wise socked his fourth home run as a RoughRider to illuminate the scoreboard for the first time and give his team a 1-0 lead.
The score remained stagnant until the seventh. Veteran Josh Geer, in his second straight relief appearance against the RoughRiders, ran into trouble when he allowed a run-scoring triple to Odubel Herrera. The shot to
right-center field scored Trever Adams, who had singled earlier in the frame to extend his hitting streak to ten straight games.
With Herrera 90 feet away, Geer uncorked a wild pitch that allowed another insurance run to score and give the ‘Riders a 3-0 lead.
San Antonio was able to get one run back from Frisco after stretch time. Faulkner’s final batter faced, Alex Dickerson, doubled to open the bottom of the seventh, and field manager Jason Wood called for another lefty out of the bullpen.
Joseph Ortiz allowed two singles and a fielder’s choice to Austin Hedges, which brought Dickerson into score and put the Missions on the board. The run was charged to Faulkner, but Ortiz quashed the rally with a ground-ball out off the bat of Brian Bixler.
The Missions would get no closer, thanks in part to Keone Kela, who notched his second save in as many nights. Kela sat the side down in order and touched 99 mph on the Wolff Stadium radar gun when he struck out Hunter Renfroe for the second out in the ninth.
With the win, Frisco (65-47; 25-18) guarantees at least a split in the four-game series with San Antonio and wins on the road for the 30th time in 2014.
San Antonio (57-56; 21-22) falls below .500 in the second half and drops to 12-15 against Frisco this season.
The four-game set between the RoughRiders and the Missions concludes on Sunday at 6:05 p.m. CDT from Wolff Stadium in San Antonio. Coverage begins with the Frisco RoughRiders Pregame Show at 5:40 p.m. on www.ridersbaseball.com.
Frisco reopens Dr Pepper Ballpark on Tuesday, August 5 to begin a six-game homestand against the North Division. For tickets to see the ‘Riders in 2014, call 972-731-9200, e-mail Info@RidersBaseball.com or visit www.ridersbaseball.com.
