Naturals Split Missions Series With Win
Following last week’s series with Amarillo, the Naturals {10-11} would hit the road, to San Antonio, to take on the Missions {10-10} in a six-game series beginning Tuesday. NWA would win the initial game of the series, 8-3, before dropping the next three games. Could the Naturals fight back in this series to get a split?
The Naturals would win, on Sunday, 6-3, to split the hard-fought series. This win made back-to-back wins for the Naturals, as they would win, 11-10, in 12 innings on Saturday night. The Naturals have shown as of late that they are never out of games no matter the score. We will briefly analyze the win from today as well as what is next on the schedule.
How Did The Naturals Win?
Fast Start
The final game of this series would start fast for the Naturals as they would score six runs in the top of the second inning to take an early 6-0 lead. In that inning, Jake Means, who went 2/4 from the plate, would get his sixth RBI of 2023, when he would single to drive in Dillan Shrum. Jorge Bonifacio would follow Means by getting his 16th RBI when he would get hit by his first pitch of the season and Means would score. John Rave would get his 13th RBI of 2023, with a single, that would drive in Parker Bates to make the score 3-0. Luca Tresh would get his 12th RBI of the season when he would ground out to the second baseman, Connor Hollis, and Peyton Willis would score to increase the lead to 4-0. Jeison Guzman would single and score Bonifacio and Rave to get his 10th and 11th RBI on the season.
The Naturals finished the day with 6 hits, 4 walks, 10 strikeouts, and 11 runners left on base in 31 at-bats. NWA finished 3/7 with runners in scoring position {RISP}, On the basepath for the Naturals Guzman would be caught attempting to steal 2nd while Morgan Mcdonough would get picked off at 2nd base. From these two perspectives, the Naturals performed well. but there was one perspective that NWA was superior. What would that be?
Command On The Mound
Today, the Naturals would see a starter go into the sixth inning for the first time in 2023. On the mound, today was left-hander Anthony Veneziano who would be making his fifth start. Venezaino would throw 76 pitches, with 57 being for strikes, allowing one run, 4 hits, 4 ground outs, 8 fly outs, and 5 Ks in his 23 batters faced and finish the day with a 2.08 ERA. Venezaino would get secure his third win of the season to bring his record to 3-1. On a day where the Naturals would only use three pitchers to close out the Missions, we would see a pitching change in the 7th inning.
In the seventh, we would see reliever, Will Klein, who would work for one inning. In that inning, Klein would allow 3 hits, 2 runs, and 2 Ks. Klein would throw a total of 21 pitches, with 13 being for strikes, with one fly out in the 7 batters faced. Klein would also hit Reyes with a pitch-making the second time in the game as Veneziano would also hit him.
The Naturals would bring in Walter Pennington to close out the Missions. Pennington would pitch for two innings while facing 9 batters. The lefty would throw 34 total pitches with 16 being for strikes while allowing 3 walks and 1 K in the save. This is Penningtons first save of the 2023 season.
What Is Next?
The Naturals will return home, to Arvest Ballpark, starting on Tuesday, when they host the Midland RockHounds for a six-game series. The Naturals and RockHounds have played this season when Midland would win the opening three-game series of the season two games to one. The first game will begin at 11:05 am when the Naturals host ‘Education Day’. On the mound for the Naturals will be Ronald Medrano who is 0-1 on the season with a 16.88 ERA.
