CANCEL'S 'GRAND' NIGHT NOT ENOUGH IN 7-6 LOSS

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Infielder, Gabriel Cancel , drove-in a career-high five runs and whacked a grand slam on Wednesday night; but a late home run sent the Northwest Arkansas to a 7-6 loss at Whataburger Field on a wet night in Corpus Christi.
Cancel stepped to the plate with the bags full and two-outs in the third inning against Hooks' starter, Brandan Bailey, and clobbered a first pitch fastball at the bottom of the zone beyond the leftfield wall to cut the Northwest Arkansas deficit to 5-4. The second baseman later tied the score in the fifth inning after Nick Heath and Khalil Lee drew back-to-back one-out walks against reliever, Brenden Feldman. Cancel singled into leftfield to score Heath from third and put runners at the corners.
Samir Dueñez then came to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly to medium leftfield and Lee scampered home to score the go-ahead run, sliding just ahead of the tag by catcher, Chuckie Taylor to put the Naturals in-front, 6-5 in the fifth.

In the ensuing half inning, right-hander, Grant Gavin (3-2, 4.91 ERA) walked the lead-off batter and surrendered a full-count, two-run home run to Josh Rojas, pushing the Hooks back in-front, 7-6. The home run proved to be the deciding factor.
After Northwest Arkansas (9-11) batted in the top of the sixth inning, the rain poured and sent the game into a 45 minute rain delay beginning at 8:30 p.m. CST. The game resumed play in the bottom of the sixth at 9:15 with Gavin still in the game. The 23-year old erased a lead-off walk by inducing a 6-4-3 double-play to end the frame. The Naturals rolled three double-plays in the contest for the third time this year.
The Naturals faced an early 5-0 deficit on Wednesday night. Corpus Christi centerfielder, Ronnie Dawson hit a lead-off home run to highlight a three-run first inning for the hometown Hooks and followed up with a two-run in the third inning, giving Corpus Christi (10-10) a 5-0 lead off starter, Andres Sotillet . The 22-year old right-hander for the Naturals went four innings, allowed five runs on seven hits with three walks and struck out five while inducing his league-leading seventh double-play. He surrendered two home runs in his start for just the third time in his career and first time since July, 2017.
The Naturals bats turned silent by Hooks newly-added reliever, Carlos Sanabria who retired the first seven man faced starting in the seventh inning. Northwest Arkansas had the tying run at second base in the ninth frame with two-outs, but Sanabria struck out the final hitter of the game to complete the nine-out save.
Right-hander, Franco Terrero covered the seventh and eighth innings of relief for the Naturals pitched two perfect frames with two strikeouts. Terrero has struck out six of the last 10 batters faced in the current series.
Cancel's five-RBI game is the first of his career, surpassing his previous high of four RBI game in June, 2018. He hit the first grand slam for the Naturals of the 2019 season and the first since Mauricio Ramos' grand slam in 2017.
The finale of the four-game set is slated for 6:15 on Thursday night. Right-hander, Conner Greene (2-0, 1.57 ERA) looks to win his second straight start and split the set against Corpus Christi. The Hooks will counter with former first round pick in 2017, right-hander, J.B. Bukauskas (0-3, 19.13 ERA) at Whataburger Field.
Catch the live play-by-play action of the road opener in Corpus Christi on Thursday night with the Voice of the Naturals Benjamin Kelly on the flagship station of the Naturals, 92.1-FM the Ticket at 5:55 p.m. for the Indigo Sky Casino Pregame Show leading to first pitch at 6:15 p.m.
The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The Naturals play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark. For more information, including statistics, ticket options, and more, please visit NWANaturals.com, and follow us on Twitter @NWANaturals and Facebook.com/Naturals.
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