Five Tulsa Homers Give Hennessey Win Number 300
TULSA, OK – The Tulsa Drillers powered their way to victory on Friday night by hitting five home runs to defeat the Arkansas Travelers 9-3 at ONEOK Field. The five homers were backed by a strong start from John Rooney as he worked his longest outing of the season, giving
TULSA, OK – The Tulsa Drillers powered their way to victory on Friday night by hitting five home runs to defeat the Arkansas Travelers 9-3 at ONEOK Field. The five homers were backed by a strong start from John Rooney as he worked his longest outing of the season, giving up only one run with six strikeouts.
It was a win for the history books, as it was the 300th victory for Scott Hennessey as manager of the Drillers. The total is the fifth highest in 109 seasons of Tulsa professional baseball, dating back to 1905.
The game began sluggishly for the Drillers as they stranded seven runners on base in the first three innings with Arkansas committing two errors.
The game remained scoreless because Rooney allowed just two hits through his first three innings.
The Drillers finally broke through in the fourth, putting three runs on the scoreboard. After Ryan January reached on a walk and Justin Yurchak was hit by a pitch, Kody Hoese hit a home run into the Budweiser Terrace to put the Drillers on top.
Tulsa benefitted from two more home runs to increase the lead in the fifth inning. With one out, Brandon Lewis hit a solo home run before Arkansas reliever Rob Kaminsky came on to replace starting pitcher Stephen Kolek. Jeren Kendall greeted him by blasting another solo home run to give the Drillers a 5-0 lead.
Rooney continued to keep the Arkansas bats quiet until Cade Marlowe singled to centerfield to plate Jake Scheiner with two outs in the sixth. It ended the lefthander’s night, exiting after allowing just the one run on seven hits in 5.2 innings of work.
The Drillers hit two more home runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase their lead to 8-1. Andy Pages hit a solo home run for his 13th of the season, and Ryan Ward hit a two-run shot for his 16th of the year.
In his first game with the Drillers, January plated the Drillers ninth run with an RBI groundout in the seventh inning.
The Travelers put two more runs on the board in the eighth against reliever Jose Hernandez thanks to a two-run single from Marlowe that made it 9-3.
HIGHLIGHTS AND HAPPENINGS:
*The Drillers have now hit 102 home runs this season, the second-highest total in all of Double-A.
*Ward’s home run leaves him tied for third most in the Texas League.
*Relief pitcher Keegan Curtis and catcher January each made their ONEOK Field debuts on Friday night. Curtis tossed 1.1 perfect innings following Rooney, and January drove in a run, scored a run and drew a walk in the game.
*Gus Varland and Jordan Leasure each had scoreless outings in the game. Varland recorded the final out in the eighth inning by striking out Patrick Frick, and Leasure worked a perfect ninth inning, earning one strikeout.
*The two teams combined for 22 hits in the game with Tulsa accounting for 12.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers and Travelers will continue their six-game series on Saturday night in downtown Tulsa. It will be the second of three straight Fireworks games at ONEOK Field in celebration of the Fourth of July holiday.
Starting time on Saturday is set for 7:05 p.m. and the pitching matchup is scheduled to be:
Arkansas – RHP Levi Stoudt (5-4, 5.09 ERA)
Tulsa – RHP Landon Knack (2-4, 3.72 ERA)