NATURALS FALL 6-5 AS MISSIONS RALLY LATE

For the first time since May 28th, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals did not hit a home run, falling to the San Antonio Missions Saturday night, 6-5.

The homerless night snapped an 18-game stretch that spanned just over three weeks of consecutive games with at least one home run.

Bobby Witt Jr. (MLB Pipline’s No. 7 prospect in baseball) continued his hot month of June, going 2-for-4 with double and a triple, his team-leading third three-bagger of the year.

Travis Jones and Brewer Hicklen (MLB Pipeline’s No. 24 Royals’ prospect) each contributed two-hit nights as well, with Hicklen starting the scoring in the fifth with a two-run triple of his own, at the time putting Northwest Arkansas up 2-0.

After Nick Pratto (MLB Pipeline’s No. 9 Royals’ prospect) singled home a run in the sixth, San Antonio tied the game in the bottom half at 3-3.

While Rudy Martin and Clay Dungan each drove home a run in the seventh, San Antonio added three more runs to edge out the Naturals and hand Northwest Arkansas its third loss in five games this week.

Yefri Del Rosario (MLB Pipeline’s No. 29 Royals’ prospect) pitched two scoreless innings in his first start of the year while striking out three and was piggybacked by Nolan Watson, who allowed just one run across 3.1 innings of work.

Andres Nunez took his second loss of the season, and on the road trip, giving up five runs (two earned in just 1.1 innings. Dylan Coleman pitched a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts but the Naturals couldn’t come back in the ninth.

Northwest Arkansas will go for the series split on Sunday and wrap up a 12-game road trip, sending right-hander Jonathan Heasley (MLB Pipeline’s No. 12 Royals’ prospect) to the mound for his eighth start of the year at 2:05 p.m. against the Missions in San Antonio.