Theo Hardy did not have much time to enjoy the first Double-A home run of his career as a personal milestone. Frisco needed it too badly for that.
Hardy opened the bottom of the sixth by lifting a fly ball deep enough to left field that Riders Field could read it almost immediately, a solo shot that broke a tie Wichita had just rebuilt. Dylan Dreiling and Yeison Morrobel followed with run-scoring hits later in the inning, and the RoughRiders turned the swing into the separation they needed Sunday in a 12-8 win over the Wind Surge at Riders Field.
It was not tidy, and it was not calm. It was enough to avoid a six-game sweep.
Frisco finished with 12 runs on 15 hits, answering nearly every Wichita push with a better one. The RoughRiders trailed 4-1 after the top of the third, led 6-4 after four innings, lost that lead in the sixth, then punched back for three runs in the bottom half. When Wichita made one last move in the ninth, Frisco still had room.
The center of it was Hardy and Dreiling. Hardy went 2-for-3, was hit by a pitch, scored three times and supplied the swing that put Frisco ahead for good. Dreiling went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, including the sacrifice fly that put the RoughRiders ahead in the first and the sixth-inning double that helped make Hardy’s homer feel like the start of something bigger.
Wichita’s first hard turn came in the second. Blake Townsend walked Garrett Spain and Kyle DeBarge around an Andrew Cossetti strikeout, and Graham Brown drove a three-run homer to center field to put the Wind Surge ahead 3-1. Brown, who led Wichita with a 3-for-4 day and three RBIs, helped set the tone for a game that kept threatening to get away from Frisco before the lineup kept pulling it back.
The RoughRiders’ first answer came in the third, after Rafe Perich walked and Dreiling singled. Ian Moller lined a two-run double to left, scoring both runners, and Max Wagner followed with an RBI single to center that scored Moller to tie it at 4-4, with Wagner moving up on a throwing error by Spain.
Frisco took the lead an inning later with a cleaner burst. Hardy reached on a bunt single, Sebastian Walcott singled, Perich drove in Hardy with a ground-ball single to right and Dreiling sent another line drive into center to score Walcott. By the end of the fourth, the RoughRiders had turned a three-run deficit into a 6-4 lead.
That lead did not survive Janser Lara’s sixth. Cossetti was hit by a pitch, Brown singled, Jaime Ferrer doubled home one run and Luis Hernandez’s soft groundout brought in another, tying the game at 6-6. Lara still ended up with the win, moving to 5-1 despite the blown save, because Frisco’s lineup answered before the inning could settle.
Hardy’s homer off Hunter Gregory made it 7-6. Walcott walked, moved to third on Perich’s flyout and scored when Dreiling hammered a sharp line drive down the right-field line for his 22nd double. Morrobel then drove Dreiling in with a line-drive single to right, stretching the lead to 9-6 and turning the inning from a response into the game’s hinge.
Walcott kept appearing in the middle of it all. He reached four times, walked three times and scored four runs, giving Frisco traffic in front of the bats that did the most damage. Morrobel went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, and his eighth-inning single to left capped the RoughRiders’ final rally after Perich had already singled home Hardy. The three-run eighth pushed the lead to 12-6.
That cushion mattered. Caden Kendle, who finished with three RBIs, hit a two-run homer off Eric Loomis in the ninth after Luis Hernandez walked. Loomis then walked Spain and hit Cossetti, forcing Frisco to go to Joey Danielson for the final out. Danielson struck out DeBarge to record his second save.
Between the sixth-inning answer and the ninth-inning escape, Leandro Lopez gave Frisco the bridge it needed. He worked two scoreless innings, struck out three and walked one, earning a hold while keeping Wichita from pulling the game back into another exchange.
The RoughRiders still committed an error, still allowed 10 hits and still watched Wichita bring the tying run closer than a six-run eighth-inning lead should allow. But on a day that began with the possibility of a sweep, Frisco’s offense made the mess survivable.
Hardy supplied the biggest swing. Dreiling kept driving in runs. Walcott kept crossing the plate. And after five straight losses in the series, the RoughRiders finally had enough offense to make the last out stand.