Gonzalez impresses in 7-2 debut victory

FRISCO, TEXAS (June 10, 2014) - The 'Riders defeated the 'Hounds 7-2 on Tuesday night behind Alex Gonzalez's strong Double-A debut. The prospect pitched five innings of shut out ball and Joey Gallo continued his strong entrance into the Texas League with his second homer in as many games.

Fresh off the walk-off win over Midland (33-30) on Monday night, the RoughRiders (38-24) wanted to put the pressure on the RockHounds early. Guilder Rodriguez walked to get things started and Jake Smolinski doubled to left-center to move Rodriguez over to third. Tomas Telis followed that up by hitting a sacrifice fly to center, which scored Rodriguez, and the 'Riders went out in front 1-0.

Gallo, the hero from Monday night with his three-run walk-off homer, stepped up to the plate and wanted to give the Frisco crowd something else to cheer about. Gallo took a 1-1 pitch opposite way to left for an RBI double to give Frisco a 2-0 lead. It was Gallo's fifth RBI in his first six Frisco at-bats.

He added to his home run count and RBI total in the bottom of the third with a solo moonshot to right to put Frisco out in front 3-0.

Gonzalez (1-0) looked sharp in his Double-A debut by pitching four consecutive perfect innings. The game encountered some controversy as Josh Whitaker dropped a ball in shallow left field and Smolinski appeared to make a diving catch. The umpires ruled that the ball was trapped and Whitaker was credited with a double to break up Gonzalez's bid for a perfect game.

The Rangers 23rd pick in the 2013 June Amateur Draft buckled down to get Anthony Aliotti to strike out and induced two fly balls to centerfield to retire Kent Matthes and Miles Head. Gonzalez pitched five innings in his debut, with four of them perfect, and issued only one hit while striking out six.

The Frisco bats continued to get the job done in the bottom half of the fifth frame. Telis bunted his way on with an infield single down the third base line and Gallo drew his first walk with Frisco. Ryan Rua found a pitch he could drive and he sent one on a ride to the gap in right-center to plate two runs and give the 'Riders a 5-0 lead.

Rua later scored on a Teodoro Martinez sacrifice fly to center to make the score 6-0.

Jon Edwards came on in relief of Gonzalez in the sixth and gave up a leadoff homer to Dusty Coleman to put Midland on the board 6-1.

Coleman hit his second homer of the game in the eighth inning off of reliever Francisco Mendoza to make the deficit 6-2.

Frisco got that run back in the next frame, however, on Smolinski's RBI single to score Adams following his two-out double.

Mendoza issued a one-out walk to Max Muncy in the top of the ninth, but the righty closed things out for the 'Riders to seal the 7-2 win.

Nate Long (6-2) suffered the loss after his 4.2 innings pitched in which he gave up five earned runs on ten hits.

Frisco travels to take on the Corpus Christi Hooks for a four-game series with game one Wednesday night at 7:10 at Whataburger Field. Righty Alec Asher (6-4, 3.28 ERA) will pitch for Frisco and southpaw Luis Cruz (4-5, 3.99 ERA) will go for the Hooks. The 'Riders magic number to clinch a post-season berth the Texas League playoffs is now at two. For tickets to see the 'Riders in 2014, call 972-731-9200, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.ridersbaseball.com.