SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Arkansas has enjoyed an offensive surge late in the season, but Midland had just a little more Wednesday night at Arvest Ballpark.
The RockHounds jumped out to a 6-0 lead and got some solid relief pitching late to hold on for a 6-4 win in game two of the Texas League Championship Series.
Texas League Championship Series
Tuesday
Game 1: Midland 5, Northwest Arkansas 4
Game 2:
Game 3: Northwest Arkansas at Midland, 7 p.m.
Game 4: Northwest Arkansas at Midland, 7 pm. (if necessary)
Game 5: Northwest Arkansas at Midland, 7 p.m. (if necessary)
Midland, the Double-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, now leads the best-of-five series 2-0 with game three shifting to Midland tonight. The RockHounds will have a chance to claim their third consecutive Texas League title.
Kyle Finnegan and Jake Sanchez came through with 2.1 innings of no-hit, no-run relief to hold off the Naturals. Sanchez struck out the side in a perfect ninth for the save.
The RockHounds took the lead with two runs in the fourth and added three more in the fifth.
Yairo Munoz had singles in both innings. The third baseman led off the fourth with an infield single and later scored on J.P. Sportman's single to left field. Munoz' single in the fifth drove in a run. Designated hitter Andy Pax also delivered a solid two-out, two-run double to left in the fifth against Naturals reliever Reid Redman.
Lead-off man Brad Vertigan led a 12-hit Midland attack, going 3 for 5, while Sportman, Munoz and Tyler Marincov chipped in two hits each. Paz and Sportman drove in two runs each, while Munoz scored twice and drove in a run.
Northwest Arkansas finally got going offensively with three runs in the seventh and another in the third.The Naturals got RBI-singles from Frank Schwindel and Samir Duenez and added another run on a Midland error. Ryan O'Hearn, who finished 3-for-4, drove in a run in the seventh on a single up the middle to pull Northwest Arkansas within 6-4.
Finnegan came on with two outs and runners at second and third and struck out Duenez with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball to end the inning.
Northwest Arkansas manager Vance Wilson said his team wasn't able to match Midland's early offense. RockHounds starter Corey Walters, who picked up the win, threw five scoreless innings and allowed just one Naturals runner to reach second.
"With a team like that, you've got to answer back offensively and we didn't," Wilson said. "We swung at bad pitches. We got off our approach. He pounded our righties in, got jammed a lot. We were prepared, just didn't execute.
"I knew we'd battle back. I knew we wouldn't roll over. The problem is we've just got to find that offense early."
Sports on 09/15/2016