Northwest Arkansas Naturals Snap Springfield Cardinals Streak with an 11-6 Smackdown - AA, Texas League

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - The Springfield Cardinals ran into some good pitching on Wednesday afternoon, as the Northwest Arkansas Naturals held on to defeat the Cardinals by a score of 11-6 at Hammons Field.  The loss for Springfield’s ends their season-high six-game winning streak, but the Redbirds remain in first place by a full game in the North Division. A sold-out crowd of 8,459 watched as highly-touted Kansas City pitching prospect Carlos Rosa (3-2) blanked the Cards over six innings, holding them to just four hits, while recording seven strikeouts.  Northwest Arkansas designated hitter Brian McFall had a pair of homers and a franchise-record six RBIs. 

The Naturals took a 1-0 lead on Cards’ starter Cory Rauschenberger (0-1) in the third, as Cody Clark led off the inning with his first homer of the year.  It remained that way until McFall struck for his first of two home runs, a two-run blast off of Nick Webber to make it 3-0 in the fifth. 

McFall capped Northwest Arkansas’ five-run sixth inning with his fourth homer of the year, a grand slam to left-center to make it an 8-0 game against Webber.  Casey Rowlett’s two-run home run broke up the shut-out in the seventh, as he took Patrick Green deep with Jose Martinez aboard to make it 8-2.  The home run is Rowlett’s first of the year.

Bob Zimmermann gave up three unearned runs in the eighth, as Ovandy Suero capped a three-run inning with a two-run blast to right field, his first of the year, making it 11-2.   Shane Robinson took Greg Atencio out to left-center field in the eighth, making it 11-3.  Atencio would give up back-to-back home runs with two outs in the ninth, as Casey Rowlett cracked his second of the game, a two-run blast to make it 11-5.  Matt Pagnozzi followed with his first of the year, a solo shot to round out the scoring at 11-6. 

Rowlett becomes the first Cardinal this year to homer twice in a game.  Springfield’s Jon Jay, Jose Martinez and Shane Robinson all extended their hitting streaks, to 11, nine and seven respectively.

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