Sebastian Walcott kept giving the RoughRiders a way back into Sunday afternoon’s game, first with a hard answer in the third inning and later with the swing that reset everything. Luke Hanson found a smaller, stranger way to finish the comeback.
Walcott’s two-run homer in the sixth tied the game, and Hanson’s safety squeeze in the seventh pushed Frisco ahead for good in a 7-6 win over Northwest Arkansas at Arvest Ballpark.
It was not a clean route. Frisco trailed 3-1 after three innings, led 4-3 in the fifth, then watched Jorge Alfaro turn the game again with one violent swing. The RoughRiders still pulled it back, winning a game that kept asking for another response.
Walcott supplied the first one in the third. Corey Joyce walked to open the inning, moved into scoring position, and came home when Walcott drove a sharp line into left field. That tied it 1-1 after Justin Johnson had opened the scoring for the Naturals with a long solo homer to center in the second, a ball that carried beyond the warning track and into the batter’s-eye area.
Northwest Arkansas answered immediately. Hyungchan Um walked, Sam Kulasingam doubled, and Spencer Nivens drove both of them in with a double to right against Thomas Ireland. Just after Walcott had evened the game, the Naturals had a 3-1 lead.
Frisco’s next push came less from thunder than from traffic. Marcus Lee Sang was hit by a pitch in the fifth, Walcott walked, and Dylan Dreiling walked to load the bases. Yeison Morrobel pulled the RoughRiders within a run with an infield single to shortstop, and Max Wagner and Malcolm Moore followed with bases-loaded walks. Eight pitches, two walks, two runs, and Frisco had its first lead at 4-3.
That lead lasted only until Alfaro came up in the bottom half. After a Kulasingam walk and a Nivens single, Alfaro drove a line-drive homer to center off Wilian Bormie. Dreiling could only turn and watch as the three-run shot carried out, flipping Northwest Arkansas back ahead, 6-4.
That was the game’s biggest counterpunch. Walcott’s was the answer.
Hanson walked to open the sixth against Tommy Molsky, and after Lee Sang struck out, Walcott came up with the tying run aboard. He drove a line drive to left-center, the kind of ball that did not need much suspense once it left the bat. Kulasingam went back, but the ball kept going, and Walcott’s fifth homer made it 6-6.
Walcott finished 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and a strikeout. Dreiling went 1-for-3 with a double, two walks and a strikeout, and Wagner went 1-for-3 with a double, two walks and an RBI.
The go-ahead run in the seventh looked nothing like the tying shot. Wagner walked to start the inning against Anthony Simonelli. After Moore flew out, Rafe Perich singled to right, moving Wagner to third. Hanson then squared and put a bunt up the first-base line. Alfaro fielded it and tagged Hanson, but Wagner scored easily on the safety squeeze to put Frisco in front 7-6.
From there, the RoughRiders’ bullpen had to make the narrow lead stand.
Janser Lara worked through the sixth after Justin Johnson opened the inning with a walk. Angel Acosta bunted Johnson to second, but Hanson threw home on Canyon Brown’s fielder’s choice to cut down Johnson, and Lara got Um to ground out. Lara earned the win, improving to 6-2 with one scoreless inning.
Josh Trentadue took over for the seventh and gave Frisco exactly what the game needed: two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, good for his third hold. Eric Loomis handled the ninth for his fourth save, working around a leadoff walk and an error before Sam Kulasingam struck out to end it.
The Naturals did plenty of damage in the middle innings. Johnson went 2-for-3 with a homer, a double and a walk, Nivens went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run, and Alfaro’s lone hit was the three-run homer that briefly looked as if it might decide the game.
Instead, Frisco’s seven runs on seven hits were enough. The RoughRiders fell behind three times, tied it three times, and won it on a bunt after Walcott had already given them the swing that made the ending possible.