Naturals hold off Wind Surge in opener

NATURALS 6, WIND SURGE 4

SPRINGDALE — Northwest Arkansas used a four-run bottom of the third to grab the lead and held on for a 6-4 victory over the Wichita Wind Surge with 5,121 on hand for the first of two education day games on Tuesday afternoon at Arvest Ballpark.

The Naturals padded their onerun lead thanks to a run-scoring single by Jorge Bonifacio with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning. John Rave led off the inning with a double, moved to third on Luca Tresh’s groundout and later scored to give the Naturals a 6-4 lead

Jonah Dipoto, Jacob Wallace and Steven Cruz each pitched a scoreless inning to finish off the team’s third straight win. Cruz notched his second save.

Designated hitter Armani Smith hit a two-run homer to right to get Wichita within 5-4 off Medrano, who replaced Dante Biasi (2-1) with a runner on first, a 2-1 count and one out. He left the game with a cramp, Naturals Manager Tommy Shields said, but he still picked up the win.

Shields said he liked what he saw from Medrano, who allowed a run in 2 2/3 innings.

“I thought Ronald Medrano came in when we needed him and did a great job in the middle,” Shields said. “Got us to the seventh, which is what we needed. And if you give us a lead in the seventh I feel pretty good with our bullpen. So I thought his performance was key today.

“We got some hits with two outs. We got some runners in from third. We still need to do a little bit better job of that, put the ball in play with two outs. But we got some hits when we needed them.”

He also pointed to a 4-6-3 double play in the ninth inning that snuffed a Wichita rally. The Wind Surge put the first two runners on thanks to walks, but Naturals second baseman Peyton Wilson ranged to his left to grab a ground ball off the bat of Yunior Severino. Instead of going to first for the easier play, he threw to shortstop Tyler Tolbert who was covering second and Tolbert turned the double play.

“I thought Wilson made the play of the day with that double play,” Shields said. “We were thinking ‘go to one’ and then he threw it to second and then we get a double play. I thought that was the key play of the game.”

Catcher David Banuelos hit a 2-out, 2-run homer to center field in the top of the second to give Wichita a 2-0 lead. The Naturals made it 2-1 thanks to an RBI-double by Jeison Guzman after a lead-off walk by Jorge Bonifacio. Bonifacio’s 2-out, RBI-single later gave the Naturals a 3-2 lead.

Left- hander Daniel Lynch, who was making a rehab start for Northwest Arkansas, allowed two runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one, leaving after 59 pitches.

The left- hander suffered a shoulder strain while pitching for

“I thought {Peyton} Wilson made the play of the day with that double play. I thought that was the key play of the game.”

Naturals Manager Tommy Shields

the Kansas City Royals and was put on the injured list retroactive to March 27.

Lynch said he felt good. “Traveling and all that stuff, I felt maybe a little tired and a little worn out,” Lynch said. “The shoulder felt good and that’s all I’ve really been worried about. Just happy to strike some guys out, didn’t walk too many. I thought I threw too many pitches but I’m not too worried about it. It’s kind of one of those things that you got to work through getting back into the game and stuff.”