Wichita spent its final afternoon as the Wind Surge trying to undo one punishing inning. The lineup kept answering, scoring in seven of nine frames and bringing the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Preston Johnson’s six-run third proved too much to overcome in a 10-8 loss to the Frisco RoughRiders on Sunday at Equity Bank Park.
The defeat left Wichita with a 55-81 final record and the most losses in franchise history. Yet even after Frisco opened a seven-run lead, the Wind Surge kept making the finale feel unsettled. They finished with 17 hits to the RoughRiders’ 14.
Wichita had built a 2-0 advantage over the first two innings. Marek Houston singled and scored on Brandon Winokur’s groundout in the first, and Quinn McDaniel sent a ground ball through the right side in the second to bring home Danny De Andrade.
Johnson’s afternoon unraveled in the third. Marcus Lee Sang led off with a home run, and after two of the next four batters made outs, Gleider Figuereo drove a fly ball toward the wall in left-center. The ball carried just far enough to get out for a three-run homer, turning Wichita’s lead into a 4-2 deficit.
Two walks and two more hits extended the inning. Lee Sang’s ground-ball single through the right side brought home Yeison Morrobel and Paxton Kling before Lee Sang was thrown out trying to take second. By then, Frisco had scored six times.
Johnson took the loss after allowing six earned runs on seven hits and three walks in three innings. He struck out two.
The Wind Surge answered through accumulation. Winokur scored on Kyle DeBarge’s fifth-inning single, then lined a run-scoring hit into left in the sixth. The ball skipped past Lee Sang long enough for Winokur to take second, and Wichita had trimmed the deficit to 6-4.
Frisco immediately reclaimed the space. Arturo Disla opened the seventh by shooting a line drive over the left-field wall, his third homer of the series. Lee Sang later split the left-center gap with a two-run double, completing a three-run inning that pushed the margin to 9-4. Cory Lewis was charged with four earned runs over four innings.
Wichita scored once in each of the seventh and eighth, though two runners were thrown out trying to advance in the seventh and the Wind Surge left the bases loaded in the eighth. Frisco added a sacrifice fly between those rallies, taking a 10-6 lead into the ninth.
With two outs and nobody aboard, Houston singled to center. Garrett Spain followed with a drive down the right-field line that dropped for his second double of the day, scoring Houston from first. Winokur then bounced a single through the left side, and Spain beat the throw home to make it 10-8.
Andrew Cossetti came up representing the tying run and drove a ball sharply to center, where Kling secured the final out.
Winokur went 4-for-6 with a double, three RBIs and two runs. Spain added three hits, two doubles and an RBI, while Houston went 3-for-6 and scored twice. DeBarge had two hits, a walk and an RBI.
The game also closed the Wind Surge chapter before the club’s transition to the Turbo Tubs identity. General manager Matt Hamilton said the coming change is intended to preserve the energy the organization tried to build around the ballpark this season.
“And I think the biggest thing that I hope everybody will take away from the brand change and going forward into the future is that this organization will be centered around fun and unique and crazy and chaotic and all in a positive fashion.”
— Matt Hamilton, Wichita Wind Surge General Manager
That broader view accompanied an afternoon when the home club’s persistence nearly covered an early collapse. Hamilton described Equity Bank Park as something larger than its final scores.
“This place is not a baseball stadium. It’s a community gathering place.”
— Matt Hamilton, Wichita Wind Surge General Manager
On the field, Kyle Bischoff supplied a scoreless ninth before Wichita made its last charge. It was a fitting final sequence for this particular game: one more chance, one more rally, and the damage from the third inning still standing at the end.