Drillers Cannot Recover from Early Deficit

Despite not allowing an Arkansas run after the third inning, the Tulsa Drillers dropped Saturday night's game in LIttle Rock to the Travelers by a final score of 5-3.  
 

All eight runs in the game came off both teams' starting pitchers, as the bullpens for the Drillers and the

Travelers combined for over five innings of scoreless baseball.  
 

Tulsa got off to a good start by opening the game with a run in the first. After Delta Cleary Jr. led off the game with a single and moved to second when Ryan Casteel drew a walk, Brian Humphries roped a double down the right field foul line to score Cleary Jr. and give the Drillers a 1-0 lead.  
 

Three Travelers runs in the second inning erased the early lead for Tulsa. One at-bat after Michael Snyder doubled to score Matt Long from first, Adam Melker hit his fifth home run of the season to put Arkansas up 3-1.  
 

Humphries picked up his second RBI of the evening when he singled home Featherston in the third, narrowing the early score to 3-2.  
 

Arkansas responded with two more runs in the bottom of the same inning. Mike Bianucci hit a two-out single and quickly stole second. Matt Long followed with an RBI bloop single that fell perfectly between the infield and center fielder Cleary Jr, scoring Bianucci for the Travelers' fourth run of the game.  
 

An ensuing double from Anderson De La Rosa scored Long from first and put the Travs up 5-2.  
 

The Drillers made it a two-run game in the fifth inning. Tyler Massey walked to begin the inning, while Featherston was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat, putting runners on first and second. Massey and Featherston moved to second and third on a ground out from Casteel, and Featherston eventually scored on a sac fly from Humphries, putting Tulsa only two runs back of Arkansas.
 

Unfortunately, that would be as close as the score would get, as the effective bullpens for each team took over.  
 

Tulsa's Carlos Hernandez gave up more than two runs in a start for the first time since July 3. Hernandez finished with five earned runs on six innings of works, giving up eight hits and no walks while striking out five.  
 

Mike Piazza pitched for the first time out of the Drillers' bullpen and was quite effective, throwing two shutout innings, only allowing two hits and a walk.  
 

Humphries led Tulsa's offense by picking up the RBI on every Tulsa run, three total. He was also the only Driller with multiple hits in the contest.

The Drillers and Travelers will wrap up their series with a game Sunday night. The third overall pick of the 2013 MLB draft, Jon Gray (9-4, 3.73 ERA), will go for the Drillers and attempt to be the Texas League's first pitcher to double-digit wins. Gray will face the Travelers' Michael Roth (8-6, 2.54 ERA), who pitched two perfect innings of relief for the Los Angeles Angels earlier this month. First pitch at Dickey-Stephens Park is scheduled for 6:10 PM.