Drillers Lose Late Lead Before Rallying for Walk-Off Win

Tulsa, OK – Following a successful 3-3 road trip to Corpus Christi, the Tulsa Drillers opened their longest home stand of the season on a winning note Tuesday night against the Arkansas Travelers, but it took a ninth-inning rally to do it. The Travelers erased a four-run Tulsa lead in the eighth inning to tie the game, but the Drillers produced the final run of the night in the bottom of the ninth without getting a hit and posted an 8-7 walk-off win at ONEOK Field.

It was Tulsa’s sixth walk-off win of the season. Combined with Springfield’s loss to Northwest Arkansas, the Drillers moved to within one game of the first-place Cardinals in the second half standings of the Texas League’s North Division.

BOXSCORE

The game was scoreless through the first two innings before the Travelers opened the scoring in the top of the third. With one out, Jared Sundstrom drew a walk, and he advanced to second when Tulsa starting pitcher Payton Martin was called for a balk. After a ground out, Sundstrom scored on a two-out single from Felnin Celesten.

The Drillers responded immediately in the bottom of the third. Joe Vetrano opened the inning with a 412-foot, opposite-field homer that tied the game. Jose Izarra and Taylor Young followed with back-to-back singles before Jake Gelof plated Izarra with a sacrifice fly that gave Tulsa a 2-1 lead.

Three more runs in the fourth upped the lead to 5-1. Kole Myers drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on a single from Frank Rodriguez. After a pitching change by the Travs, Vetrano greeted Jimmy Kingsbury with a base hit that scored Myers. Right fielder Sundstrom’s throw to third on the play was off target, leaving the runners at second and third. Young’s second hit of the night scored Rodriguez, and the second balk of the game plated Vetrano for the third run of the inning.

The scoring continued into the top of the fifth. Caleb Cali led off with a double and scored on a one-out double from Sundstrom. A walk to Jonny Farmelo ended Martin’s night as Christian Ruebeck came on. Ruebeck struck out Celesten, but he hit Charlie Pagliarini with a pitch before walking Hunter Fitz-Gerald to force home the second run of the inning and trim Tulsa’s lead to 5-3.

With the bases still loaded, Ruebeck struck out Boston Smith to end the threat.

The Drillers got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth with their second home run of the night, courtesy of Elijah Hainline.

Tulsa’s third home run came in the sixth inning on Young’s third hit of the game. His solo shot, his third homer this season at the Double-A level, gave the Drillers a 7-3 lead.

Arkansas erased the lead with its four runs in the eighth inning, with an error and near strikeout helping the Travelers. Tulsa summoned Carson Hobbs from the bullpen to begin the inning and Hunter Fitz-Gerald singled on his second pitch. Following a walk to Smith, Josh Caron delivered a two-run triple that pulled the Travs to within two runs.

Cali popped out for the first out of the inning, and with the infield drawn in, Sammy Siani hit a softer grounder to Hainline at short that would have produced the second out, but Hainline mishandled the ball for an error that put runners at the corners.

Hobbs struck out Sundstrom before getting a 2-2 count on Farmelo. Hobbs came close to ending the inning when he delivered a fastball near the outside corner to the lefty Farmelo, but the pitch was ruled outside for ball three. On the next pitch, a full-count offering, Hobbs threw another fastball at almost the exact same spot, and Farmelo, given a second chance, narrowly missed a homer when he lined the pitch off the wall in deep, left-center field. Both runners scored on the two-out double to tie the score at 7-7.

It stayed tied until the bottom of the ninth. Josue De Paula led off the inning and quickly fell into a two-strike hole before taking four straight pitches out of the strike zone from Arkansas reliever Ty Cummings to gain a leadoff walk. Mike Sirota was hit by a pitch before Gelof also worked out of another two-strike hole to draw a walk that loaded the bases.

On the next pitch, Hainline hit a soft bouncer down the third base line that Travs’ third baseman Cali backhanded in foul territory, but his off-balance throw to the plate was not in time to keep De Paula from scoring the game-winning run.

GAME NOTES

*Tuesday’s matchup was the first of a 12-game home stand that will include six games against Arkansas, followed by six games with Amarillo. The home stand will run through Sunday, August 23.

*The win snapped a two-game, home losing streak for the Drillers. They have lost more than two home games in a row only one time this season, dropping four in a row to Springfield in May.

*It was an unusually, tough night for Hobbs. The reliever had not given up an earned run in his last 12 games and 17 1/3 innings, dating to June 25. The right-hander was charged with four runs, just two earned, in one inning pitched.

*Martin’s night ended after 64 pitches and 4 1/3 innings on a very warm night. He was charged with three runs on five hit and two walks with one strikeout.

*Lucas Wepf worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings without allowing a hit to pick up the win. It improved his record to 3-1.

*The Drillers totaled 13 hits in the game with Young and Hainline getting three each.

*It was a good night for Vetrano. He finished 2-4 with two RBI, and his home runs was his sixth of the season.

*De Paula was 1-4 and has now hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games.

UP NEXT

The Drillers will continue their series with the Travelers on Wednesday night at ONEOK Field. Starting time for game two of the six-game series between the two teams is set for 7:00 p.m. and the pitching matchup is expected to be:

Arkansas- RHP Ryan Hawks (4-6, 5.89 ERA)
Tulsa- LHP Adam Serwinowski (8-5, 5.22 ERA)