Cole Stasio gave the RoughRiders the kind of start that should have carried more weight: five innings on his 25th birthday, six strikeouts, no walks and only one damaging swing. Frisco’s offense kept finding the edges of a rally but never enough of the middle, leaving Stasio’s career-high outing unsupported in a 3-1 loss to Wichita on Thursday at Equity Bank Park.
The RoughRiders outhit the Wind Surge 6-5 and played errorless baseball. Their six hits produced one run.
Stasio (1-1) allowed two earned runs, the first after Kyle DeBarge was hit by a pitch to begin the bottom of the first. Khadim Diaw moved him to third on a fly ball, and Brandon Winokur’s sacrifice fly put Wichita ahead.
From there, Stasio settled in. He retired the side in order in the second, then got the first out of the third before Quinn McDaniel sent a high fly ball over the wall in left-center. The ball carried beyond Marcus Lee Sang’s retreat and into the Wichita bullpen for McDaniel’s first home run, stretching the lead to 2-0.
Stasio responded by striking out DeBarge and Winokur around a hit batter, then worked through a two-out single in the fourth. He finished by striking out McDaniel and DeBarge in a perfect fifth, completing the longest outing of his career.
Frisco had chances to give that work a different result. Lee Sang opened the third by shooting the first pitch down the left-field line. The ball skipped off the wall, and Lee Sang slid into second with his 15th double. He did not advance as Ty Langenberg retired the next three hitters.
The RoughRiders finally broke through in the sixth. Sebastian Walcott was hit by a pitch, and Rafe Perich lined his second hit of the night into right to put the first two batters aboard. After a strikeout, Yeison Morrobel chopped a ball through the middle that deflected away from the infield and rolled into center.
Walcott scored, Perich reached third and Morrobel slid safely into second with his 13th double. Frisco was within 2-1, with the tying run 90 feet away and one out.
That was as close as the RoughRiders came. Langenberg fielded Malcolm Moore’s grounder and threw home to retire Perich, then Paxton Kling flew out to end the inning. Langenberg held Frisco to one run over six innings, striking out four without issuing a walk.
Austin Roberts, speaking before the game about the energy he tries to provide the pitching staff, described how quickly one moment can shift a game.
“But just kind of lifting everybody up and understanding, like, hey, man, it only takes one pitch, one swing in the bat, one play in the field to turn that momentum on our side.”
— Austin Roberts, RoughRiders Right-Handed Pitcher
Wichita found that swing immediately after Frisco’s best rally. Diaw led off the bottom of the sixth against Bryan Magdaleno with a liner down the right-field line that bounced over the fence for a double. Winokur followed with a ground-ball single through the middle, bringing Diaw home and restoring the Wind Surge’s two-run lead.
Magdaleno stopped the inning there with a flyout and two strikeouts. Wily Villar and Joey Danielson combined to keep Wichita scoreless the rest of the way, with Danielson recording four outs without allowing a run.
The offense could not make another push. Spencer Bengard retired all six RoughRiders he faced in the seventh and eighth, striking out three. Kling drew a two-out walk against Kyle Bischoff in the ninth, but Lee Sang grounded out to end it.
Morrobel finished 2-for-4 with Frisco’s only RBI, and Perich also went 2-for-4. Stasio had supplied the length and kept the margin manageable. The missing piece was the hit that could turn a narrow opening into a comeback.