Northwest Arkansas gave away another one Thursday night.
The Naturals committed three errors in a 6-4 loss to the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo.
Northwest Arkansas took a 4-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Jorge Bonifacio singled, Hunter Dozier doubled and Bonifacio scored on Max Ramirez's groundout to make it 1-0. One batter later, Edinson Rincon gave the Naturals a 2-0 lead with a RBI single. Later in the inning, Justin Trapp hit a two-out, two-run double for a 4-0 lead.
That wasn't enough, as Springfield cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth and tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth on Jonathan Rodriguez's RBI single.
The Cardinals took a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth thanks to two errors. Patrick Wisdom reached on a fielding error by first baseman Max Ramirez. Rafael Ortega bunted but Dozier, the Naturals third baseman, threw away the ball which allowed Wisdom to score the go-ahead run as Ortega moved to third on the play.
Ortega scored two batters later on Mike O'Neill's sacrifice fly to make it 6-4.
Bonifacio and Rincon had two hits each for the Naturals.
Kyle Hald (8-3) allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings and struck out 4 for Springfield. Justin Wright earned his eighth save of the season.
Sports on 07/18/2014