Marcus Lee Sang gave Frisco all the offense it needed with two swings Friday night, and the RoughRiders pitching staff spent the rest of the evening making sure those swings held up.
Lee Sang drove in all four runs in a 4-0 win over Midland at Riders Field, turning a second-inning RockHounds mistake into a two-run homer and a fourth-inning rally into a two-run double. Dalton Pence and three relievers made it stand, combining for 14 strikeouts while stranding enough Midland traffic to keep the shutout from ever feeling routine.
The RockHounds had their chances early. Brennan Milone opened the game by jumping on the first pitch and lining it to left, and Devin Taylor followed with a single to right that pushed Milone to third before Frisco recorded an out. Pence answered by striking out Leo De Vries and Cole Conn, then getting Davis Diaz to pop out to shortstop Frainyer Chavez.
It became the tone of the night. Midland finished with seven hits and five walks, but none of them became runs. Frisco finished with eight hits, no errors and just enough loud contact from Lee Sang to even the series.
The first break came in the second. Ian Moller reached on a throwing error by Leo De Vries, and Lee Sang followed by lifting his ninth homer of the season to left field. It was the kind of swing that punished a free baserunner immediately, flipping a scoreless game into a 2-0 RoughRiders lead without asking the rest of the lineup to string much together.
Frisco threatened again in the third, when Rafe Perich drove his 11th double to center, a ball that carried deep enough to reach the wall and come back into play. The Riders did not cash that one in, but they were starting to find better swings against Jackson Finley.
They did in the fourth. Arturo Disla opened the inning with an infield single off Finley, and Moller dropped a fly ball into shallow right that second baseman Justin Riemer could not reach. Lee Sang came up with two aboard and drove his 13th double of the season sharply into left, scoring both runners for a 4-0 lead.
That was all Frisco would score. It was also all Frisco would need.
Pence worked 4.2 scoreless innings with six strikeouts and three walks, but his night was less clean than the line alone suggests. He worked around two baserunners in the second and two more in the fourth, and he was still on the mound when Milone opened the fifth with a triple. After Milone reached third, Pence struck out Taylor, got De Vries to pop out and intentionally walked Conn before Austin Roberts entered to face Diaz.
Roberts struck out Diaz to end the inning and protect the four-run lead. He went on to earn the win, improving to 3-2, with 1.1 scoreless innings and two strikeouts.
Midland’s last serious push came in the seventh against Jonathan Brand. Cameron Leary singled, Taylor walked and, after Brand struck out De Vries, Conn walked to load the bases, but Brand struck out Diaz to get through the inning. Eric Loomis handled the final two innings, striking out four without a walk and closing the shutout with a clean ninth.
Milone led Midland by going 2-for-5 with the triple, but the RockHounds never found the hit that changed the game. They also committed three errors, two of them by the second inning, and Lee Sang made the biggest one hurt.
Lee Sang finished 2-for-4 with the homer, double and two strikeouts. Chavez added two hits and a stolen base for Frisco, but the game belonged to the right fielder’s run production and a pitching staff that kept finding escape routes.
The RoughRiders scored twice in the second, twice in the fourth and nowhere else. On this night, that was plenty.