Naturals return home with momentum

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals return home from their first road trip having won three of their last four, including a 15-5 victory over Wichita on Sunday afternoon.

Northwest Arkansas hit six homers in the game, including two by Robbie Glendinning.

The Naturals will host a sixgame homestand against Amarillo beginning tonight. The Sod Poodles (5-4) lost two of their last three to Corpus Christi. Amarillo is the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Reliever Dante Biasi (1-0) came up with key outs in the middle part of the game before the Naturals’ offense broke the game open late. He threw 1 ⅓ hitless innings, struck out 3 two and didn’t walk a batter.

Naturals manager Tommy Shields said Biasi came through in a big way paving the way for Will Klein, Jacob Wallace and Steven Cruz to finish off the win. The trio combined for 4 ⅓ scoreless innings.

“It was the key part of the game, bases drunk, falls behind and comes back and strikes him out,” Shields said. “That was the key at-bat of the game then finished it off with a nice sixth to get us to Klein, Wallace and Cruz. The game was in the balance and if he doesn’t come up big for us there, the game goes a totally different direction.

The Naturals (4-5) were clinging to a 7-5 lead with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning, but Biasi struck out Seth Gray to end the threat.

Shields said the offense got going, winning three of the last four and averaging 10 runs per game. Northwest Arkansas outscored Wichita 41-18 in those four games. That came after being outscored 11-3 in the first two games of the series. The Naturals hit six home runs in the final game on Sunday.

“The kids started swinging the bats really well, great way to finish the series, get a little momentum,” Shields said. “Hopefully it carries over. I think they’re getting into the season. I think they’re getting into the competitive nature of the games and having much better at-bats.

“It was a nice way to finish the series for sure. It didn’t start out well. I didn’t think we competed very well the first two games of the series. We had a little discussion about that. I think they came out and competed well the last four games.”

Catcher Luca Tresh led the offense, going 3 for 3 with two walks, five RBI and three runs scored. Glendinning finished with three hits and drove in four. Peyton Wilson added three hits as the Naturals banged out 17 hits in the game.