Diamonds

Diamonds in the Rough – Texas League Championship Game 2

Midland RockHounds 6 NW Arkansas Naturals 4
Midland up 2-0 (best of 5)

The Naturals and RockHounds went head to head in game 2 with the Naturals sending Texas League All-Star Eric Skoglund to the hill to try to even things up. After being remarkably consistent the entire season, Skoglund had to attempt to avoid trouble the entire game in this one. The lefty managed to work through a bases loaded jam with one out in the first and hits in the next two innings, but ran into real problems in the fourth inning.

Skoglund opened the frame allowing hits to the first two hitters he faced. This time Midland bunted to sacrifice runners into scoring position. Another single brought home one prior to a sac fly scoring the second and pushing NW Arkansas down 2-0. All while Midland starter Corey Walter was spinning zeroes despite not being able to strikeout a single NW Arkansas hitter on the night.

The fifth would be handled in much of the same as the rest of the innings for Skoglund as the lefty would give up a one-out double, his eighth hit allowed, and hit a batter before getting lifted for reliever Reid Redman. The relief wouldn’t spell much for the Naturals as Redman would give up two more hits to pad the Midland lead to 5-0. A home run one inning later would push the lead to 6-0 before the Naturals would finally get some offense going.

In the bottom of the sixth the Naturals would piece together four singles before a gift error from the RockHounds helped cut the deficit in half. One inning later, a pair of one-out walks and a single from Ryan O’Hearn, one of his three on the night, cut the deficit to just two runs, but a ground out and a strikeout by Samir Duenez with a pair of runners in scoring position would end the rally. That Duenez strikeout would be the first of five strikeouts against the next seven Naturals hitters as the Midland bullpen would stamp out any chance of a rally and push NW Arkansas into a 0-2 series hole before heading on the road to Midland where the series will resume.

Boxscore Link

Ryan O’Hearn 3-4, RBI
Samir Duenez 1-4, RBI
Alfredo Escalera 1-4, 2R, BB

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