Bandy Doubles Game Winner In Eleventh Inning

LITTLE ROCK - Jett Bandy drove in the winning run with double in the bottom of the 11th inning to secure a 2-1 victory for the Arkansas Travelers over the Tulsa Drillers at Dickey-Stephens Park on Thursday night. With three base hits, Bandy paced the Travs during their second extra-inning win of the week.

The starting pitchers dueled a scoreless game through six innings each. Travs lefty Nate Smith and Tulsa's Tyler Anderson each struck out eight batters and walked one. Anderson allowed three base hits while Smith gave up just two hits. No Travelers runner reached third base against Anderson, while Smith didn't let a Driller runner to second.

After Smith exited following the sixth inning, Tulsa went to work on Danny Reynolds in the seventh inning. Tyler Massey hit a leadoff single and advanced when Ryan Casteel lined a single to right field. A two-out base hit by Jayson Langfels up-the-middle scored Massey to give the Drillers a 1-0 lead.

Maikol Gonzalez sparked the Travs in the eighth inning with a two-out walk from Ken Roberts, which he followed with a steal of second base. Alex Yarbrough tied the game with his Texas League leading 118th base hit, a line drive single to center, producing his league-leading 57th RBI.

The Drillers threatened with a couple of walks in the eighth inning, but Carmine Giardina shut them down by getting Massey to ground to first before striking out Taylor Featherston. Cam Bedrosian pitched a perfect ninth inning and handed the ball to Trevor Gott for two no-hit inning including three strikeouts.

Kraig Sitton was able to leave the winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth and tenth innings, but Adam Melker led off the 11th inning with a two-hop single past Langfels at third base. After Long bunted into a force play at second base, Bandy produced the game-winning hit to the left field corner.

The victory pushes the Travs to 18-16 in the second half, two games ahead of Northwest Arkansas and three games up over Tulsa (15-19).

The second game of the series is set for Friday night at 7:10 p.m. when Orangel Arenas (5-6, 3.71) while the Drillers counter with Richard Castillo (2-9, 5.21).