RockHounds complete season-opening sweep

ROCKHOUNDS 5, NATURALS 1

SPRINGDALE — Northwest Arkansas dropped its third consecutive game to the Midland RockHounds on Saturday night, but at least the Naturals came away with some positives.

The RockHounds scored three unearned runs off three Northwest Arkansas errors to beat the Naturals 5-1 in front of 4,539 at Arvest Ballpark and sweep the season-opening three-game series. Midland (3-0) outhit Northwest Arkansas 7-6.

“We’re working hard, and when we piece it all together we’ll be all right,” said Naturals left fielder Brian Fletcher, who hit a home run in his first at-bat.

Sugar Ray Marimon (0-1) took the loss but worked 52/ quality innings for Northwest Arkansas (0-3). Marimon gave up 5 runs, 2 earned, walked 1 and struck out 5.

“Sugar pitched a pretty good game,” Northwest Arkansas Manager Brian Poldberg said. “He gave up a solo home run and got hurt on another hanging pitch, but for the most part after that we just had some defensive lapses and [Midland] did a good job on their opportunities to score.

“It was a very quality start, and that’s something we really haven’t had.”

The Naturals trailed just 3-1 through four innings, but Midland scored a run in the fifth and an unearned run in the sixth. The Naturals had an opportunity in the eighth thanks to a one-out single by Whit Merrifield and a twoout single from Angel Franco, but Brett Eibner struck out to end the scoring opportunity.

“We’re getting better atbats, but I just think it’s a matter of getting hits at the right time with guys on base to help get some momentum going,” Fletcher said.

Midland took a 1-0 lead in the second off a one-out home run by Miles Head and extended it to 3-0 in a tworun fourth, highlighted by a double from Dusty Coleman and two Northwest Arkansas errors.

The Naturals pulled within 3-1 on Fletcher’s one-out home run in the fourth, but the RockHounds scored a run in the fifth off a triple by Chad Oberacker, and a run in the sixth off Northwest Arkansas’ third error of the game and consecutive singles from Jefry Marte and Coleman.

“When you’re not scoring many runs, you can’t afford to give up any,” Poldberg said of the six errors on the season. “It’s a tough jump from high [Single-] A to Double-A, and there are some growing pains.”

Sam Runion worked 11/ innings of relief for Northwest Arkansas without allowing a hit or a walk, striking out one. Benton’s Andy Ferguson pitched the final 2 innings for the Naturals, giving up 1 run and 2 walks with 1 strikeout.

Rey Navarro went 2 for 3 with a double to lead the Naturals. Midland was led by Coleman, who went 3 for 3, and Marte went 2 for 4. Midland’s Anthony Aliotti, who entered the game 6 for 6 through the first two games, went 0 for 4.

Josh Bowman (1-0) earned the victory, allowing 1 run and 4 hits over 5 innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out one.

“The offense is a little inconsistent at this point,” Poldberg said. “There’s been too many strikeouts. We just need to put the ball in play better … we just need to keep on grinding.”