SPRINGDALE — Northwest Arkansas pitchers drilled five Frisco batters Saturday.
The RoughRiders fought back with their bats.
Frisco hit three home runs, pounded out 16 hits and scored in each of the final seven innings to defeat the Naturals 10-3 before 4,873 fans at Arvest Ballpark.
All nine batters had at least one hit for Frisco (23-25), with the bottom three hitters in the batting order combining for six hits.
Frisco got home runs from Tommy Mendonca in the fifth inning, Jared Prince in the sixth inning and Alex Buchholz in the seventh.Buchholz and leadoff hitter Engle Beltre had three hits each to lead the RoughRiders.
“They were pitching behind, and they didn’t have a feel for the strike zone,” Naturals Manager Brian Poldberg said. “It made for a long night.”
RoughRiders shortstop Jurickson Profar was hit by Naturals starter Sugar Ray Marimon in the first inning and by Ryan Dennick in the sixth. Profar responded the second time by stealing second base and scoring on a single to left-center field by Chris McGuiness to give Frisco a 6-2 lead.
Frisco hitting coach JasonHart, who was filling in for Manager Steve Buechele, said he thought the hit batsmen were unintentional.
“I think they were trying to come inside, and it happens,” Hart said. “A couple ofthem were with two strikes, so I don’t think there was any connection at all.”
Marimon (3-4) allowed 4 runs and 10 hits in 5 innings and took the loss after giving up just 1 run over 13 innings in his previous 2 starts, both of which were victories.
The RoughRiders continued to build their lead against Dennick and Buddy Baumann, scoring two runs in the sixth inning, one in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth.Today’s game
FRISCO ROUGHRIDERS AT NW ARKANSAS NATURALS WHEN 6 p.m.
WHERE Arvest Ballpark, Springdale RADIO KQSM, 92.1-FM INTERNET nwanaturals.com PITCHERS Frisco: Neil Ramirez (RHP, 1-5, 5.04 ERA); NW Arkansas: Noel Arguelles (LHP, 3-12, 7.17) SHORT HOPS Naturals starting pitcher Justin Marks (3-4, 3.86 ERA) was activated Saturday after spending the past six weeks on the disabled list. Starter Yordano Ventura (0-2, 5.68), a recent call-up from advanced Class A Wilmington, was placed on the disabled list with a hand injury. Outfielder Nick Van Stratten (.284, 0 HR, 14 RBI) was sent down from Northwest Arkansas to Wilmington.
THE WEEK AHEAD TODAY vs. Frisco, 6 p.m.
MONDAY vs. Frisco, 7 p.m.
TUESDAY off WEDNESDAY at Midland, 6:30 p.m.
THURSDAY at Midland, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY at Midland, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY at Frisco, 7 p.m.
Sports, Pages 23 on 08/12/2012