NATURALS SHUT OUT WIND SURGE 1-0 TO EVEN SERIES
A night after taking a close 3-1 loss on Tuesday, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals battled out a 1-0 victory over the Wichita Wind Surge Wednesday night, as five pitchers combined to shut out the top team in the Double-A Central. After scoring a run in the first inning Tuesday, the
A night after taking a close 3-1 loss on Tuesday, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals battled out a 1-0 victory over the Wichita Wind Surge Wednesday night, as five pitchers combined to shut out the top team in the Double-A Central.
After scoring a run in the first inning Tuesday, the Naturals were unable to score for the rest of the night and a pair of runs pushed across by Wichita in the 7th inning were the difference.
Game two of the series on Wednesday was scoreless until the 8th inning, when Brewer Hicklen’s second single of the day scored Vinnie Pasquantino (MLB Pipeline’s No. 18 Royals’ prospect) from third base to give the Naturals a 1-0 lead.
Hicklen was one of seven Naturals who recorded a hit in the win and Pasquantino reached base four times, drawing three walks on top of his 8th inning single.
Across 3.0 innings, starting pitcher Angel Zerpa (MLB Pipeline’s No. 19 Royals’ prospect) struck out four and did not allow a run for the second time in his last three starts. Once Zerpa left, the Naturals’ bullpen backed up his effort and kept the Wind Surge off the board for the rest of the night.
Lefty Daniel Tillo was the first arm out of the bullpen and fired two scoreless innings, striking out one. Stephen Woods Jr. struck out a pair across a scoreless inning in his first action in nearly a month and Holden Capps didn’t allow a run across 1.1 innings to earn his third win of the season.
Ándres Núñez took over for Capps with a runner on and one out in the 8th inning and needed just 11 pitches to retire all five batters he faced for his fourth save of the year.
Since returning to the Naturals from Triple-A Omaha on August 21, Núñez has pitched 13.0 innings without allowing a run across six outings, converting all four of his save attempts.
With the win, Northwest Arkansas (58-51) gains a game of ground on Wichita (63-47) and now sit just 4.5 games behind the first seed in the Double-A Central with 10 games to play in the regular season. With the Frisco RoughRiders losing, the Naturals are just 1.5 games out of the second playoff spot.