Riders Swept For First Time This Season
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FRISCO, TEXAS – The Frisco RoughRiders suffered their first sweep of the season in a 5-2 loss to the Arkansas Travelers Friday at Dr Pepper Ballpark. With the final meeting between the two teams, Arkansas won the season series eight games to four.
In the second, Kaleb Cowart singled to second and then stole second. Travis Witherspoon walked and the runners advanced on a wild pitch by Neil Ramirez. Later in the frame, Ryan Jones singled to bring in two runs and Carlos Ramirez slammed a two-run homer over the left wall to give Arkansas (10-5, 43-41) a 4-0 lead.
With two outs in the second, Zach Zaneski walked and Ryan Strausborger singled to center. Alejandro Selen then knocked an RBI single to left to put the RoughRiders (6-9, 45-40) on the board trailing 4-1.
Chih-Hsien Chiang led off the fourth with a double to right. Zaneski got hit by the pitch and Strausborger hit an infield single to load the bases. Hanser Alberto then knocked a sac fly to left score the run and cut the Travelers’ lead 4-2.
With two outs in the eighth Luis Montanez singled to center, C.J. Cron singled right and Cowart reached on a strike-three wild pitch to load the bases. Reliever Arlett Mavare then walked Witherspoon, extending the Arkansas lead 5-2.
Caleb Graham came on in the fifth, striking out one and allowing two hits to earn the win. Though he struck out seven, Neil Ramirez allowed four runs on six hits in six innings to suffer the defeat. David Carpenter pitched a scoreless ninth to be credited with his second save.
The ‘Riders begin a new series against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Dr Pepper Ballpark. Carlos Pimentel (7-6, 4.55 ERA) makes the start for the ‘Riders, and will face Sugar Ray Marimon (5-8, 4.66 ERA) for the Naturals. Fans can tune in to KTXD for the televised broadcast or listen to the play-by-play on www.RidersBaseball.com beginning at 6:40 p.m. For information on tickets to see the RoughRiders in 2013, please call (972) 731-9200, email info@ridersbaseball.com or visit www.ridersbaseball.com.
