Another Eighth Inning Rally Spurs Travs

TULSA - For the second night in a row the Arkansas Travelers staged a comeback rally in the eighth inning to stun the Tulsa Drillers at ONEOK Field. Eric Stamets drove in the winning run with a two-out single to complete the rally. Then after Michael Bianucci launched a two-run homer (7) in the ninth inning, Jairo Diaz held on for a 9-8 victory to secure a split in the series.

Three times the Drillers stepped in front of the Travelers only to see the lead evaporate. Tulsa scored early against Drew Rucinski, who allowed a season-high six runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings.

Tyler Massey hit a single with one out in the Drillers' first inning and stole his way to third base before scoring on a two-out single by Ryan Casteel. Travs CF Matt Long reached base to begin the second inning on a fielding error, then advanced to third base on an errant pickoff by Drillers' starting pitcher Richard Castillo. Drew Heid rifled a two-out single to right field to tie the game, at 1-1.

Tulsa LF Brian Humphries quickly put the Drillers back up the second inning with a triple to left field and scored on a wild pitch.

Rucinski retired six in a row, but gave up a double to Casteel to begin the fourth. Trevor Story followed with a high drive over the left field fence (2) for a 4-1 Tulsa advantage.

Castillo set down seven Travs in a row before Stamets walked in the fifth inning. After moving to second on a wild pitch, Stamets scored when Maikol Gonzalez dropped a single to center field. A groundout from Alex Yarbrough moved Gonzalez to second base, which Brian Hernandez followed with a high fly ball above the lights that Delta Cleary lost in center field. The ball dropped ten feet in front of him for an RBI double. Hernandez crossed the plate when Bianucci lined a double off the left field fence to tie the game, at 4-4.

Yet again Tulsa stepped in front with two runs in the fifth off Rucinski on a pair of RBI singles by Jayson Langfels and Casteel. Michael Brady relieved with one out and Casteel at second base. After striking out Story, Brady gave up a sharp single to right by Humphries. Casteel ran for the plate, but Heid fielded the ball and fired to the plate where Anderson De La Rosa applied a quick tag to end the inning on a close third out.

Trailing 6-4, the Travs scored an unearned runs off Ryan Aarowood in the sixth inning without a base hit. Kaleb Cowart walked and stole second before moving to third on a passed ball. Stamets hit a high chopper to shortstop with two outs. Story charged the ball, but couldn't field the ball on a short hop try and Cowart scored on the error to bring the Travs within a 6-5 Tulsa lead.

Brady pitched a perfect sixth inning then was replaced by Carmine Giardina, who struck out two batters during a shutout seventh inning.

Facing Kraig Sitton, Matt Long hit a hard grounder that took a hop over Casteel to right field for a double. After moving to third base on a wild pitch, Long scored when Anderson De La Rosa hit a ground ball through Joey Wong, who was playing up at second base, for the tying run. Cowart advanced De La Rosa to second with a broken-bat grounder, then Heid hit a groundout to second base to send De La Rosa to third. Stamets found the hole on the left side of the infield for the go-ahead single helping the Travs to their first lead of the game.

Trevor Gott made his debut with the Travelers during the eighth inning, and pitched a scoreless frame on one hit and a strikeout.

Bianucci launched a long shot off Sitton in the ninth inning to increase the lead to 9-6.

Diaz found quick trouble when Joey Wong hit a ball that got past Gonzalez in left field for a leadoff double. Cleary's bouncer behind first base glanced off Hernandez's glove and scored a single to put runners at first and third. Cleary stole second base and took third when Diaz uncorked a run-scoring wild pitch. Tyler Massey's RBI groundout knocked Cleary home to cut the lead to 9-8. After a strikeout, Diaz got Casteel to hit a dribbler that Cowart charged from way back at third base. After fielding bare handed, Cowart threw wildly resulting in a single and error that put the tying run at second. His second wild pitch of the inning moved pinch runner Taylor Featherston to third base. But after five pitches Diaz struck out Story to end the game with the Travs' 13th strikeout.

Now at 16-14 on the second half of the season, the Travs hold first place by two games. They also evened their season record at 50-50.

Giardina earned the win to improve to 2-1, while Sitton was tagged with the loss (3-3). Diaz earned his second save.

Time of game was 3:56, the longest nine inning game of the year for the Travs. Paid attendance was 5,142.

The Travs' road trip continues on Monday evening at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale where the Travs play the Northwest Arkansas Naturals in a three-game series. Michael Roth (8-5, 2.36) takes the mound for the Travelers while Christian Binford (1-1, 3.38) will pitch for the Naturals at 7:05 p.m.