Drillers Blanked by Naturals 3-0

July 20, 2018

The Tulsa Drillers had trouble stringing together offense Friday night at Arvest Ballpark against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Tulsa's starting pitcher Kyle Lobstein continued his success since joining the Drillers, going six strong innings. But it was not enough as the Drillers were blanked 3-0.
Tulsa had a promising start to the game as Errol Robinson led off the game with a walk. Will Smith then hit a one-out single to put two on with only one out. Red-hot Jacob Scavuzzo lined what looked to be a single into left field, but Robinson was fooled by Naturals outfielder Khalil Lee as he seemed to be tracking down the ball that was ultimately out of his reach, but Robinson was thrown out at third.
The Naturals started their night in the bottom half of the first inning with shortstop Jecksson Flores reaching on a throwing error and Lee hitting an infield single. After a successful sacrifice bunt, Alex Liddi drove in Flores to put the Naturals up 1-0.
Northwest Arkansas immediately extended their lead in the bottom of the third when former Driller Erick Mejia singled and stole second base to set up first baseman Samir Dueñez's RBI double pushing the lead to 2-0.
In the eighth inning a Lee double was followed by another Mejia sacrifice bunt to again set up an RBI base hit by Duenez pushing the lead to 3-0.
Natural pitchers retiring twenty-two straight Drillers until Tyler Goeddel led off the inning with a single to right. Will Smith kept hopes alive after walking to give Scavuzzo an opportunity. But reliever Franco Terrero would hold on to strike out Scavuzzo to end the game.
WHAT YOU MISSED

The fielders choice in the first ultimately ended Scavuzzo's hitting streak at 21 games.
Former major leaguer Lobstein has now only allowed 7 earned runs in his 29.2 innings for Tulsa.
Tulsa reliever Nolan Long delivered 1.2 innings out of the bullpen giving up only one run while striking out three.

The loss dropped the Drillers record to 19-8 for the second half.

UP NEXT
The Drillers will take on the Naturals again on Saturday night. First pitch at Arvest Ballpark is scheduled for 6:05 PM, and the probable starting pitchers are:

TUL Tony Gonsolin (1-0, 3.00 ERA)
NWA Jace Vines (0-0, 7.71 ERA)