Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ending with a win
Naturals finish season on a positive note with victory over RoughRiders.
SPRINGDALE — Kevin Merrell was everybody’s hero on Monday afternoon.
Merrell’s soft liner in the bottom of the eighth inning cracked a scoreless tie and led the Northwest Arkansas Naturals to a 2-0 win over Frisco in the final game of the season before a crowd of 4,229 at Arvest Ballpark.
Merrell’s hit scored Angelo Castellano and Freddy Fermin and ended the season for the Northwest Arkansas (57-81 overall, 26-44 second half) on a good note.
“It’s nice to get that win,” Naturals manager Darryl Kennedy said.
“Kevin Merrell had the big hit right there. We haven’t had much offense in a few games, and it was good to get that one.”
With neither team playing for playoff spots in the final game of the season, the pitching staffs worked quickly and combined to throw just 213 pitches with batters swinging early in the count and a generous strike zone that led to a game that was played seven minutes shy of two hours.
“I’m just glad we scored there in the eighth and didn’t have to go extra innings,” Kennedy said.
Merrell’s at-bat was textbook old school. Merrell, the leadoff hitter who doesn’t use batting gloves, forced eight pitches in his final trip to the plate. With two strikes and two outs, the left hander slapped the single to left that easily scored Castellano and Fermin, both of whom had singled.
“He got to two strikes and did a great job of fouling off a couple of change ups and a couple of fastballs up,” Kennedy said. “He really had a great at-bat, and got a fastball he could handle. He got it over the shortstop’s head.”
Tyler Zuber then earned his 10th save in the top of the ninth with a 17-pitch inning.
“Zuber’s done a great job for us as a closer since he got up here,” Kennedy said.
Starter J.C. Cloney tossed seven shutout innings, walking just one and striking out five. Grant Gavin earned the win with a scoreless eighth inning of work.
The Naturals did not steal any bases on Monday, but finished with a franchise-record 218 stolen bases and led the entire minor leagues in the category.
“Our team was built from day one to steal bases,” Kennedy said. “The guys did a very good job.”
Khalil Lee led the Texas League with 53 stolen bases followed by Nick Heath, who despite being called up to Triple-A Omaha in July still swiped 50 bases for the Naturals to become the first duo to swipe at least 50 bases in a season since Midland in 1983 with Ricky Baker and Billy Hatcher.
The two teams also provided a little humor with both team sharing the same bat on Sunday. In between half innings, home plate umpire Darius Ghani would take the bat to the other team’s on-deck circle. Frisco’s Ryan Dorow broke the one bat on a fielder’s choice grounder in the seventh inning, and Frisco (69-70, 35-35) brought a bat out of its dugout with the two teams finishing the game with that bat.
“That one surprised me,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know what was going on.”
The season was Kennedy’s first with the Naturals, and he looked back on the season briefly following the game.
“They played hard all the way,” Kennedy said. “That’s all I can ask is to play hard. We went through some rough times. We had quite a few changes and some younger guys coming up. We’ll look back on it in a week or two and see how we can attack next year.”
The lineup the Naturals finished the season with was starkly different than the opening-day lineup, but that is the norm in the minors where players are moved up and down.
“Especially, on the position players,” Kennedy said. “We lost some key guys that really were part of our offense. They went the right way, they went up. That’s what we have to do in this game, and we have to deal with it the best way we can.”
With new ownership set to take over the parent club of the Kansas City Royals, the future is somewhat unclear across the organization but Kennedy hopes to be back in Northwest Arkansas next season.
“I hope so,” Kennedy said. “I’ll go home and rest up, and see what’s going on. I’d love to come back.”