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Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Naturals Fall in Series Finale Monday

August 15, 2011 - Texas League (TL1)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals News Release


MIDLAND, TX - Michael Spina broke a tie with an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth and the RockHound bullpen held the edge, carrying Midland to a 4-2 win over the Naturals in Monday's series finale at Citibank Ballpark.

The game was knotted at two heading into the fourth as Stephen Parker worked a walk to open the home half of the frame. Spina then followed by cracking a double off of Natural starter Jeremy Jeffress (1-2), knocking in Parker all the way from first. Though Jeffress was able to strand the bases loaded, the RockHounds had a 3-2 lead that they did not relinquish.

Midland (28-22, 55-65) gave right-hander Gary Daley (6-4) an early lead to work with, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Matt Sulentic drew a leadoff walk, stole second and moved to third on Grant Green's base hit. Parker then brought in Sulentic with an RBI groundout before Spina singled home Green to put the RockHounds up by two.

That early lead was short-lived, as the Naturals (26-24, 61-56) tied the game up with a run in each of the second and third frames. Nick Francis drove in Jamie Romak with a sacrifice fly in the second to cut the deficit to one, and one inning later, Jeff Bianchi lined a single to left to bring home Christian Colon.

In the first two games of the series, the Naturals scored a total of 13 runs against Midland's two starting pitchers. Daley broke that trend, holding Northwest Arkansas in check after the third inning.

Daley pitched into the seventh, scattering two hits and a walk from the fourth inning on. Though he did not strike out a single batter, Daley allowed just five hits and two walks in his quality start.

On the other side, Jeffress departed after the fourth, allowing three runs on four hits while recording three walks and three strikeouts. Andrew Dobies took over for the Naturals in the home half of the fifth, working around three hits to toss a scoreless inning.

Midland added an insurance run against Buddy Baumann in the bottom of the seventh. In what was Baumann's second inning of work, Green took the left-hander deep to left for a solo shot, his eighth home run of the season.

Jonathan Ortiz had come out of the RockHound 'pen to get the final out of the seventh and stayed in the game to fire a scoreless eighth. Jared Lansford then breezed through the top of the ninth to earn his eighth save in as many chances. Lansford and Ortiz combined to retire all seven batters they faced.

With the loss, the Naturals finished the road trip at 3-3. With their first-half trip to Midland and Frisco taken into account as well, the club went 6-6 on the road against those two teams this season. It marks the first time in their four-year history that the Naturals have played .500 ball at Dr. Pepper and Citibank Ballparks.

After Tuesday's travel day, the Naturals open a six-game homestand on Wednesday with the first of three games against the Frisco RoughRiders. Chris Dwyer (6-10, 5.83) is scheduled to take the mound against Frisco's Neil Ramirez (0-0, 0.00). The game is set to get underway at approximately 7:00 p.m.

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