Sardinha's Walk-Off Blast Keeps Drillers Playoff Hopes Alive
With one out and the bases empty, Sardinha deposited a 2-0 pitch from Travs' reliever Loek Van Mil over the bullpen beyond the right field fence to end a four-hour dual between the North Division rivals.
The Tulsa victory knocked Arkansas out of first-place and ½ game behind Northwest Arkansas. The Drillers now trail the first-place Naturals by two games with only five games remaining in the first-half schedule.
The victory was a nice turnaround for the Drillers following a road trip in which they failed to hold several late-game leads. Tulsa switched roles by overcoming a five-run deficit to claim the extra-inning win.
The Travelers had taken a three-run lead in the second inning on their first hit of the game. After setting the Travs down in order in the top of the first, Tulsa starting pitcher Cory Riordan walked Roberto Lopez to open the second. Riordan retired Gabe Jacobo on a pop up, but he also walked Matt Cusick. The passes proved costly when Angel Castillo belted his second homer of the season to give Arkansas a 3-0 lead. The long blast cleared the terrace section in left field.
The score remained the same until the Travs added two more runs in the seventh. Castillo led off with a base against reliever Sean Jarrett, followed by an error from second baseman Jimmy Cesario that put runners at second and third. A base hit by Alberto Rosario plated one run, while an RBI groundout from Mike Trout upped the Arkansas lead to five runs.
The Tulsa comeback began with three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Sardinha led off with a base hit, and Cesario was hit by a pitch. A double from Brian Rike scored Sardinha to end the shutout, and a single from Erik Wetzel plated another run. Rike scored later in the inning on a double play grounder to pull the Drillers to within 5-3.
They got a run closer in the eighth as Ben Paulsen doubled and scored on a double play grounder off the bat of Scott Beerer.
The Drillers made a bid to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Rike walked and Wetzel followed with a single that put runners at the corners. After Tim Wheeler struck out, Tommy Field reached on an infield grounder that scored Rike to tie the game at 5-5. With the possible winning run at second base, Paulsen grounded out to send the game into extra innings.
The much-maligned Tulsa bullpen was outstanding in the win. Sean Jarrett, Joe Torres, Adam Jorgenson and Daniel Turpen combined to blank the Travelers on only one hit over the game's final six innings.
Turpen worked two hitless innings to collect the win and even his record at 2-2.
The Drillers wore commemorative T-Town Clowns jerseys in the game to honor a former semi-pro Negro team that played in North Tulsa for many years.
The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday night at ONEOK Field. The game one pitching matchup will feature Rob Scahill (4-4, 4.33 ERA) for Tulsa against Matt Shoemaker (4-1, 2.91 ERA) of Arkansas. The starters in game two will be Joey Williamson (0-1, 2.74 ERA) for the Drillers and Garrett Richards (7-1, 3.55 ERA). The first game is scheduled to start at 5:05PM with the second game starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.