FRISCO Taylor Motter and Edwin Diaz both homered and drove in two runs, James Naile pitched six solid innings and the Midland RockHounds held off a ninth-inning rally Sunday to beat Frisco 5-4 and complete a sweep of their Texas League series at Dr Pepper Ballpark.
The RockHounds pushed their winning streak against the RoughRiders to eight and own a three-game lead in the South Division heading into Monday’s series opener against Amarillo at Security Bank Ballpark. Midland completed the sweep despite being outhit for the third time in the series. Frisco managed just nine runs on 37 hits over the weekend, while the RockHounds scored 31 runs on 32 hits.
Motter, who just joined the RockHounds this weekend, went 3 for 3 with an RBI double in the sixth and his second home run in the eighth. Tyler Ramirez was 2 for 4 with a triple and Nate Mondou picked up his third game-winning RBI of the series.
Frisco’s Leody Taveras went 2 for 5, while Alex Kowalczyk and LeDarious Clark were both 2 for 4 and Charles Leblanc drove in two runs.
Diaz connected with a man on against Frisco starter Brock Burke in the second inning to give Midland a 2-0 lead. The RoughRiders scored a run in the second when Brendon Davis grounded into a double play and tied it in the third on Leblanc’s RBI single.
Midland went in front to stay in the fourth when Ramirez led off with a triple and scored on Mondou’s sacrifice fly.
Naile (6-4) held Frisco to two runs on nine hits, taking advantage of two double plays. He walked two and struck out one.
Burke (0-3) was charged with four runs on six hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked none.
John Gorman survived an eventful ninth to record his seventh save. With one out, Yonny Hernandez doubled and Taveras tripled. Leblanc, representing the tying run, followed with a sacrifice fly before Gorman got Michael De Leon to ground out to end it.
