MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Frisco 11
FRISCO 11, NORTHWEST ARKANSAS 7
Frisco^004^022^300^—^11^9^1
Northwest Arkansas^401^200^000 —^7^8^4
Jackson, Klein (4), West (7), Font (9) and Cantwell; Melville, Baez (5), Alexander (7), Fassold (9) and Morin. W-Klein, 1-0. L-Baez, 0-2. HRs-Frisco, Robinson (1), Brown (1), Rua (1), Adams (1) ; Northwest Arkansas, Schlehuber (1).
At A Glance
Texas League Standings
North Division
Team^W-L^GB
Arkansas^5-2^–
Northwest Arkansas^2-5^3.0
Tulsa^2-5^3.0
Springfield^1-5^3.5
Thursday’s Scores
Arkansas 3, Midland 2
Corpus Christi 6, Tulsa 0
Frisco 11, Northwest Arkansas 7
Springfield at San Antonio (n)
Today’s Games
Frisco at Northwest Arkansas, 7:05 p.m.
Springfield at San Antonio, 7:05 p.m.
Midland at Arkansas, 7:10 p.m.
Tulsa at Corpus Christi, 7:10 p.m.
Northwest Arkansas 7
SPRINGDALE -- Frisco shook off a slow start and used four two-run home runs to power past Northwest Arkansas in front of 5,765 fans in the Naturals' home opener Thursday night at Arvest Ballpark.
Frisco third baseman Ryan Rua cranked a two-run shot in the top of sixth off Naturals reliever Angel Baez giving Frisco (3-4) its first lead of the night, 8-7, and the RoughRiders never looked back.
Naturals manager Vance Wilson said the offense did its job, but the Northwest Arkansas bullpen gave up seven runs over the last five innings, while the Frisco bullpen did not allow a run.
"Typically in my opinion seven runs is enough to win," Wilson said. "Our issue was our bullpen didn't pitch very well. I was very pleased with the offense. We hit some balls hard off a pitcher like that, I'll take that any day."
Northwest Arkansas (2-5) led 4-0 after an inning and 7-4 after four, but three Frisco relievers combined to throw 5.2 innings of shutout baseball to give the RoughRiders offense a chance to rally. Right-hander Phil Klein (1-0) picked up the win, throwing 2.2 innings of hitless baseball in relief of starter Luke Jackson.
Drew Robinson went 2-for-4, including a two-run homer, drove in three runs and scored two for Frisco. Teammate and Rougned Odor also added two hits. Lane Adams was the only Naturals player with more than one hit, going 2-for-3, walked and was hit by a pitch. He drove in a run and scored a run. Jared Schlehuber also drove in two runs
Short Hops
w The Naturals committed four errors, but all 11 of Frisco's runs were earned.
w Naturals starting pitcher Tim Melville pitched four innings for the second consecutive start and got a no-decision. He allowed four runs on three hits.
w Former Naturals manager Brian Poldberg was announced as the Naturals 2014 Hall of Fame inductee prior to Thursday's home opener. He was the Naturals only manager in the team's history until this season. Poldberg is the manager of Triple-A Omaha this season.
Extra Bases: Odor is rated the No. 1 prospect in the Texas Rangers organization by Baseball America. ... Frisco came into Thursday night's game ranked last team batting average (.196) and runs scored, while the Naturals are ranked fourth in runs scored (24) and sixth in batting average (246). ... Naturals second baseman Justin Trapp entered Thursday's game ranked fourth in the Texas League in batting average at .421.
Royals Pipeline: Former Northwest Arkansas Natural and Arkansas Razorback Brett Eibner went 5-for-5 with two home runs and nine RBIs in Triple-A Omaha's 20-3 win over Memphis on Wednesday night. The second-round pick by the Kansas City Royals in 2010 is .409 with three homers and 10 RBIs in seven games this season for the Storm Chasers. He ranks third in the Pacific Coast League in RBIs.
On Deck: The Naturals will continue their three-game series with Frisco. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. Northwest Arkansas has not named a probable starting pitcher, while RHP Nick Martinez will pitch for the RoughRiders. Martinez allowed three runs in six innings of work for the Texas Rangers against Tampa Bay on Saturday, but he was lsent back to Double-A on Sunday.
Today's Promotion: The first 2,000 fans will receive a Naturals magnet schedule and there will be fireworks following the game.
On The Air: KQSM-FM 92.1
On The Web: www.nwanaturals.com
Sports on 04/11/2014