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NATURALS AVOID BEING NO-HIT BUT DROP FRIDAY NIGHT TO WICHITA 5-3

Vinnie Pasquantino drove in the Naturals third and final run on a sacrifice fly in eighth in the loss to Wichita on September 10, 2021. (Alan Jamison)
September 11, 2021

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals came six outs away from being no-hit with a pair of 8th inning hits, but still came up short on Friday night, in a 5-3 loss to the Wichita Wind Surge to even the series at two wins each. The Naturals were the first team onto

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals came six outs away from being no-hit with a pair of 8th inning hits, but still came up short on Friday night, in a 5-3 loss to the Wichita Wind Surge to even the series at two wins each.

The Naturals were the first team onto the scoreboard, as Kevin Merrell led off the third inning with a walk and after stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch, scored on a Jeison Guzmán (MLB Pipeline’s No. 21 Royals’ prospect) groundout.

Wind Surge starter Jordan Balazovic threw 6.0 no-hit innings and it wasn’t until the 8th and Zach Neff entered the game that the Naturals could record a base hit. Merrell led off the inning with a double, then scored on a double from Clay Dungan. Dungan scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino (MLB Pipeline’s No. 18 Royals’ prospect) with each of the top three hitters in the order recording an RBI.

Austin Cox (MLB Pipeline’s No. 13 Royals’ prospect) made his first start in 30 days, opening the game for the Naturals with a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 inning. Cox was followed by Yefri Del Rosario, who pitched 5.0 innings for the first time this year, but took his third loss and allowed all five Wichita runs.

Andres Sotillet returned from the Injured List and threw a scoreless seventh, then Robert Garcia struck out three in the eighth, but two runs in the third and three in the fifth from the Wind Surge bats were too much to overcome.

The loss drops Northwest Arkansas (59-52) back to 4.5 games out of the first playoff seed, trailing Wichita (64-48). A victory by the Arkansas Travelers, drops the Naturals to 2.5 games out of a playoff spot and the second seed.