Naturals Drop Game 3 As Frisco Takes Series Control Entering Weekend | 4 Star Sports Media
Springdale, AR – Following a three-game sweep of the Tulsa Drillers on opening weekend, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals entered the week of April 7th undefeated as they host Frisco. The RoughRiders, Double-A affiliate of the Rangers, features young stars of the future like shortstop and the #2 team prospect, Sebastian Walcott.
The Naturals won the opening game,7-4, on Tuesday, which featured a viral home run from Jac Caglianone. The above-mentioned undefeated run ended on Wednesday, as Frisco edged NWA 12-9, despite the Naturals leading 5-0 early.
What Happened Thursday Night?
In the Thursday night meeting, fans piled in for “Thirsty Thursday” at Arvest Ballpark. The crowd of 3,806 got good minor league baseball as both rosters are littered with talent.
The Naturals took the field in their blue jerseys along with white pants while donning the yellow cap on what was a nearly perfect 67-degree night in Springdale, Arkansas.
Caglianone continues to impress from the plate. In the bottom half of the 1st inning, we saw a ball tracked at 120.9 miles per hour off the bat of the left-hander for a single. Radio announcer Shawn Murnin stated it “Was the hardest hit ball he had ever seen” when the initial reading was 121 mph from the stadium. More importantly, three batters later, Peyton Wilson was the scoreboard as Gavin Cross came across the plate to give NWA an early 1-0 lead.
This lead would be short-lived as Frisco catcher Cooper Johnson would send his 2nd home run of 2025 372 feet to tie the game at one. In the bottom of the 3rd for Northwest Arkansas, Peyton Wilson stepped to the plate with two outs and lined a triple to right field. This is the second three-bagger for Wilson this season. In addition, the hit brought Cross across the plate to, at the time, extend the Naturals’ lead to 3-1.
No lead is safe with these two clubs, as Frisco cut the deficit to one run in the top of the 4th. The Rangers’ number 19 prospect, Cameron Cauley, starting in left field, hit a sacrifice fly to Cross as Abimelec Ortiz scored from third. In this play, Cross exhibited his elite arm strength in a close play at the plate.
Both teams traded outs until the top of the 5th when RoughRiders right fielder Josh Hatcher lined a single to right field, bringing Alejandro Osuna across to tie the game at three.
This assisted in fans seeing the first pitching change of the night as Naturals’ starter Steven Zobac, #7 prospect for Kansas City, would be relieved by Oscar Rayo. Zobac was impressive early as he finished the night allowing 3 hits, 3 runs, and 1 walk. The 4.2 innings of work resulted in 3 strikeouts for the 24-year old right hander from Cal.
In what would end up being the final run across the plate for NWA, in the bottom half of the sixth, center fielder Connor Scott used his second double of 2025 to drive in shortstop Jack Pineda. This would give the Naturals a 4-3 lead entering the 7th inning.
In what may have been deja vu, Hatcher drives across Osuna, again, this time to tie the game at four. Frisco took the lead, 5-4, on a Cauley single to score Ortiz. Hatchet later crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly from Aaron Zavala to extend the lead for the RoughRiders to 6-4.
This would send Natural’s manager Conrad to the mound to make a second change of the night as Oscar Rayo entered the game. Cauley made the 7th run of the night for Frisco as he crossed on a Keybar Rodriguez single to the left as we entered the bottom half of the 7th.
Frisco added two additional runs in the top of the ninth following two additional pitching changes for NWA as Ortiz would be relieved by Ben Sears followed by Beck Way toeing the rubber.
The Naturals’ attempt to muster a comeback finished with consecutive strikeouts from Cross and Carter Jensen. In the end, Caglianone popped up the Johnson for a foul territory final out of the game.
What and Who Stood Out?
Frisco
The Rangers have to be clamoring for this young talent to make their way to Arlington. In this lineup for Frisco, all nine of the batters can make opposing pitchers pay. This series so far has been enlightening as to just the talent. Mentioned above was Walcott, but the arms are just as impressive.
The bullpen shut down Northwest Arkansas following the 6th inning—no, they did. NWA got no hits and no runs from there to the end of the game. We saw the #25 prospect, right-hander Skyler Haye, work 1.1 innings in the win for the RoughRiders.
From the plate for Frisco Johnson and Cauley led the way as they were a combined 5-8 with 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 4 runs, and a double. In the end, Frisco also left 10 runners on base tonight as well as an error in the series controlling win.
Naturals
We mentioned the base runners and the lack of effective movement of them earlier. With this, the runs were not produced. While we understand this is the game of baseball and teams win in many ways, Conrad mentioned to 4 Star Sports this week that “We’re not a one dimensional offense” followed by “We are going to have to do the small things as well” when discussing the hot start to the season and runs being produced.
With this, during the week, Conrad also spoke openly on being the first-year skipper of a talented roster as he told us, “I am grateful for these players to be able to have fun and get a great experience playing the game.”
On a night many will be talking about an absolute rocket off the bat of “Cags”, Conrad will try and have his Naturals ready to “Come back the next day” for a Friday night contest.
What Is Next?
Next up is a “Fireworks Friday” as well as a “Bullpen Party” from 5:30-6:30 in the right field concessions stand for another 7:05 first pitch. The Naturals will throw Ethan Bosacker and will don the all white uniform with “Naturals” across the chest combination along with a yellow cap.
