Sebastian Walcott gave Frisco the kind of first swing that can make a night feel tilted before it has really begun. He caught Drew Beam in the first inning and drove a line shot over the RoughRiders’ bullpen in left field, a 110 mph bolt that traveled 426 feet and put Frisco in front before Northwest Arkansas had taken an at-bat.
The RoughRiders kept putting traffic around him Friday night at Arvest Ballpark. They just could not turn enough of it into damage in a 5-3 loss to the Naturals.
Frisco finished with nine hits, drew six walks and had the tying run aboard in the eighth. Walcott went 2-for-5 with his fourth Frisco homer, a double and an RBI. Max Wagner reached four times, going 2-for-2 with two walks. Dylan Dreiling added his 23rd double and drove in a run.
The trouble was that too many of those chances ended with Northwest Arkansas taking the sharper turn. Frisco had one on after Walcott’s leadoff homer in the first and came away with only the one run. In the second, Wagner walked and Marcus Lee Sang singled him to third with nobody out, but Beam struck out Keith Jones II and Luke Hanson before getting Walcott to ground out.
Northwest Arkansas answered the first-inning jolt immediately against Bryan Magdaleno. The Naturals put two on with two walks, then pulled even when Spencer Nivens was hit by a pitch. Daniel Vazquez walked. Jorge Alfaro followed with a line-drive single to left that scored Spencer Nivens and gave Northwest Arkansas a 2-1 lead. Magdaleno allowed two earned runs in one inning, walking three and striking out one.
Frisco tied it in the third, though even that rally came with some cost. Rafe Perich walked, then was thrown out at third on Frainyer Chavez’s single to center as Chavez advanced to second. Dreiling followed by shooting a ball into the right-field corner, easily scoring Chavez, but he was thrown out trying for third. The RoughRiders had made it 2-2, and had also run themselves out of the inning’s chance to become something larger.
That mattered almost immediately. Brock Porter entered in the third and gave up a leadoff double to Javi Vaz. Sam Kulasingam followed with the swing that held up as the decisive blow, lifting a two-run homer to right-center for his 10th of the season. What had been a tied game became a 4-2 Northwest Arkansas lead in two batters.
Porter settled enough to miss bats, finishing with five strikeouts over three innings, but the Naturals added another run against him in the fourth. Alberto Rodriguez singled, Angel Acosta singled him to third, and Luke Pelzer drove a line-drive double to center that scored Rodriguez and moved Acosta to third. Porter took the loss after allowing three earned runs with two walks.
The RoughRiders had one more early push in them. Walcott opened the fifth by driving Beam’s first pitch to deep left-center, a ringing double off the wall. He later stole third and scored during Dreiling’s at-bat, trimming the deficit to 5-3. Beam still got through five innings with three earned runs allowed and earned the win.
From there, Frisco’s night became a series of blocked exits. Augusto Mendieta followed Beam with three scoreless innings, striking out four, and stranded Wagner’s sixth-inning single and Chavez’s seventh-inning walk.
The best chance came in the eighth, when Malcolm Moore opened the inning by smashing his seventh double of the season into left-center. Wagner followed with a soft infield single that moved Moore to third, and Lee Sang walked to load the bases with nobody out. Mendieta answered with a strikeout of Jones and a double-play grounder from Hanson, keeping the Naturals’ two-run lead intact.
Joey Danielson gave Frisco room to make that push. He threw three scoreless innings with two strikeouts and no walks, holding Northwest Arkansas where it was after the fourth. But Zachary Cawyer handled the ninth for his fifth save, retiring Walcott, Perich and Chavez in order.
Northwest Arkansas finished with five runs, 10 hits and one error. Frisco had the cleaner defensive line, the loudest first swing and enough baserunners to keep the game uncomfortable. The difference was what happened after those baserunners arrived.