Ninth Inning Rally Propels Frisco To Win
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SPRINGDALE, AR – With seven runs in the top of the ninth, the Frisco RoughRiders rallied to topple the Northwest Arkansas Naturals by a 10-7 score at Arvest Ballpark on Saturday night.
Both starting pitchers got off to tremendous starts. Jason Adam retired the first six RoughRiders he faced, and he didn’t allow a hit until the fourth. Frisco’s Neil Ramirez struck out the first five Naturals to bat against him, but after that, he surrendered four straight singles, allowing three to score in the second inning, giving the Naturals a 3-0 edge in the second.
Northwest Arkansas (7-3, 32-48) added another run in the third. Brett Eibner led off the frame with his team-leading fifth triple. Two batters later, Ramirez balked in the runner from third to extend the lead to 4-0 Northwest Arkansas. Ramirez then fanned the next three batters faced-he posted nine strikeouts in his five innings of work on the way to a no decision.
Frisco (4-6, 43-37) got their first run in the fourth. Guilder Rodriguez drew a leadoff walk off of Naturals starter Jason Adam, and he got to second base on a single from Brett Nicholas. Alex Buchholz then
bounced into a double play, but Chih-Hsien Chiang singled on a grounder to left to bring home a run to cut the lead to 4-1.
Off Jimmy Reyes in the seventh, the Naturals added another run to extend the lead to 5-1. In the next half inning, the top of the eighth, the ‘Riders plated a pair of runs off Santiago Garrido. Heading to the bottom of the eighth, the ‘Riders trailed by just two runs at 5-3. The Naturals, though, collected an unearned run off the ledger of Justin Miller in the bottom half of the eighth and had a 6-3 advantage.
And then the game went to the ninth. In a wild half-inning, the RoughRiders collected eight hits and a walk against relievers Scott Alexander and J.C. Sulbaran. They plated seven runs. Every RoughRiders hitter other than Odubel Herrera reached base in the inning, and nine consecutive ‘Riders reached safely. The big hit came ten batters into the inning when Ryan Strausborger hit a bases-clearing triple to put Frisco ahead 10-6.
In the bottom half of the ninth, Alex Claudio entered for the RoughRiders to try and close the game out. He could not do so. Facing four batters, he fanned one and allowed three singles, as the Naturals loaded the bases and brought the potential tying run to the plate in the Texas League home run leader Matt Fields.
That’s when Frisco went to Randy Henry. Fields popped a ball out to center field, deep enough for a sacrifice fly to score a run, but that was all. Henry got Cheslor Cuthbert to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the game for a 10-7 RoughRiders victory.
Miller (1-0), despite the unearned run allowed, collected the win. Allowing the final four runs in the seven-run ninth, Sulbaran (2-4) took the loss, and Henry collected his first Texas League save.
The RoughRiders continue on their road trip with game two against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. Carlos Pimentel (7-5, 4.29 ERA) makes the start for Frisco against the Naturals starting pitcher Sugar Ray Marimon (4-8, 4.78 ERA). Fans can tune in to the play-by-play broadcast on www.RidersBaseball.com beginning at 5:40.
